NEW BRITAIN — The Dozynki Festival will take place this Sunday in the city’s Little Poland neighborhood for the first time in 30 years.
The day will begin with a special Mass of Thanksgiving at Sacred Heart Parish at 11:30 a.m. The main event will follow from 12:30 to 6 p.m. at the Haller Post lot on the corner of Grove and Broad streets. A nine-member reggae-pop band from Poland, performing in the United States for the first time, will close the festival with a 6 p.m. concert.
Dozynki is a Polish harvest festival that dates back centuries in Europe. Immigrants brought the tradition to New Britain in the early 1980s. For the past three decades, the event was held at Falcon Field, far from Broad Street.
“The neighborhood was just too dangerous at the time for an outdoor festival; people were afraid to come out and celebrate,” said former New Britain mayor Lucian Pawlak, who has helped with the event for years.
Mayor Erin Stewart said the return of Dozynki shows how much the community has changed.
“I am thrilled that after so many years, the festival is coming back to Broad Street and Little Poland,” Stewart said. “There are over 100 businesses in Little Poland today and the neighborhood is thriving, attracting city residents, entrepreneurs and visitors from across the state and beyond. The Dozynki coming back to Broad Street is indicative of how much New Britain has changed over the last few decades, becoming a place where people want to be and want to visit.”
This year’s program includes folk dancers, choir recitals, a talent show and live music. Admission is free. Polish food and beer will be available all day.
“We will have eight food vendors serving traditional Polish food such as kielbasa and pierogi, I am sure no one will leave the event hungry,” said Darek Barcikowski, publisher of the local Polish newspaper the White Eagle, which is co-organizing the festival with the Polski Express.
The New Britain Dozynki is one of six similar festivals happening in Connecticut this year.
“The Polish community has such a tremendous heritage and footprint here in Connecticut, and that is what we will be celebrating here in New Britain on Sunday,” Barcikowski said.
