NORWOOD PARK — More than 3,000 people are expected to celebrate all things Serbian Friday through Sunday in Norwood Park.
The 24th annual festival, which raises money for Holy Resurrection Serbian Orthodox Cathedral, takes place on the church's grounds, just off the Kennedy Expressway at 5701 N. Redwood Drive.
The annual festival showcases the best of Serbian food, including barbecue lamb and pork roasted over open pits as well as specialties such as palacinke, which are made by creating a runny dough from eggs, wheat flour, milk and salt and frying it in a pan with butter or oil. Eaten for lunch and dinner, the dough is rolled up and stuffed with sweet and savory fillings.
Basketball and volleyball tournaments will take place, with the winners walking away with $500.
The festival will also feature music, beer, bounce houses and slides to keep kids occupied and raffles with a grand prize of a washer and dryer. The winner of the raffle's bonus prize will drive home in a 1988 Yugo, which was manufactured in the former Yugoslavia. Time magazine once named it one of the 50 worst cars of all time, which described it as having the "feeling of something assembled at gunpoint."
Wrote Time: "Interestingly, in a car where "carpet" was listed as a standard feature, the Yugo had a rear-window defroster — reportedly to keep your hands warm while you pushed it. The engines went ka-blooey, the electrical system — such as it was — would sizzle, and things would just fall off."
Serbian music and dancing will take place on all three days of the festival.
Admission and parking is free.
Festival hours are 5 p.m. to midnight Friday, from noon to midnight Saturday and from noon to 10 p.m. Sunday.
For more information, go to serbfestchicago.com.
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