If it’s old-fashioned food and family fun that you seek, then the first weekend in August is an ideal time to visit Holy Trinity Serbian Orthodox Church (1910 Serbian Drive). For the past 36 years, the church in McKinley Heights has welcomed the St. Louis community each summer with food, drinks, dancing, and fun during SerbFest.
The popular event includes church tours, cultural information, and food, including sarma, moussaka, cevaps, kobasica, sweet and savory pita, deep-fried Serbian doughnuts, and traditional cookies made with old-fashioned recipes and techniques.
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“All homemade pastry and cookie [recipes,] they’ve gotten from their mothers and grandmothers that came from the old country,” says event co-founder Ljubisa Lausevich, who’s a member of the festival committee. “We’ll also have a roasted pig on a spit.”
A cultural heritage booth will also provide information and context about Serbian culture and history, including famous Serbs such as five-time NBA All-Star and two-time NBA Most Valuable Player Nikola Jokić, the 6-foot-11-inch center for the Denver Nuggets. “Sometimes, they say [Serbia is] the land of the giants,” Lausevich says. “They’ve got some really tall basketball players.”
SerbFest also offers a chance for the community to better understand the Serbian Orthodox religious tradition. “There will also be a church tour by our parish priest,” says Lausevich. “The church has been there a little over 100 years. It hasn’t really changed much from the beginning.”
Visitors are welcome to attend the service on Sunday at 10 a.m. and stay for the festival afterward. The Orthodox liturgy is mostly in English, but portions are still celebrated in the traditional Slavonic language.
SerbFest runs from 11 a.m.–9 p.m. Saturday, with food service stopping at 7 p.m. The festival continues Sunday from 11 a.m.–6 p.m. Admission is free.
