Serbfest celebrates 35th year with church tours, Serbian fare, and more

The annual festival also offers a chance to learn about the Serbian Orthodox religious tradition and community.

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For the past 35 years, the Holy Trinity Serbian Orthodox Church (1910 Serbian Drive) in McKinley Heights has welcomed the St. Louis community every August with food, drinks, dancing, and fun during SerbFest.

The church, which recently celebrated its 109th anniversary, serves about 100 families. As festival co-chair Dave Lekich says, “We’ve been a mainstay for a long time."

The popular event includes church tours, videos of traditional dancing, Serbian beer, and food: sarma, chicken paprikash, ceva, kobasica, sweet and savory pita, deep-fried Serbian doughnuts, and traditional cookies made with old-fashioned recipes and techniques. “It gives [guests] a chance to try different foods,” says Lekich. “There’s not many Serbian restaurants. Some of the Bosnian restaurants carry some of our items, but it’s not exactly the same.”

SerbFest also offers a chance for the community to better understand the Serbian Orthodox religious tradition. Visitors are welcome to attend the service 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. 

The history of the congregation will also be explained through a history slideshow, presented several times throughout the event. Additionally, Lekich says, there will be presentations about the congregation’s biggest charity project, which helps bring children with cerebral palsy from Serbia to St. Louis for life-changing surgery.

This weekend's festival also offers a chance for visitors to get to know the people themselves. “One of the reasons we started this was back in the '90s when the war was going on, everything people ever saw about Serbs was bad,” says Lekich. “Let’s invite [visitors] to see what Serbs are like. They get to go into church and talk to Father [Ljubomir Krstic] about their religion and our religion. They get to meet people and share their story. The conversations evolve into some pretty neat stuff.”

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.

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