Pierogi Fest® is thrilled to announce this year’s marque event- a free concert by Five For Fighting a/k/a John Ondrasik on our main stage on Saturday, July 26th at 8:30 PM, sponsored by Hard Rock Casino! The songwriter and performer is a platinum-selling, Grammy-nominated sensation, whose first major single, "Superman (It's Not Easy) is part of the American Songbook. Five For Fighting, has released six studio LPs, including the platinum certified America Town and The Battle for Everything; and the top-10 charting Two Lights, along with an EP and live albums.
Ondrasik has penned major hits, including the chart-topping "100 Years," "The Riddle," "Chances," "World," and "Easy Tonight," which have earned two (2) billion streams and place him as a top-10 Hot Adult Contemporary artist for the 2000s. The reflective "100 Years" continues to stand the test of time at weddings, birthdays, graduations, memorials, and many a home video. Five For Fighting's music has also been featured in more than 350 films, television shows, and commercials, including the Oscar-winning The Blind Side, Hawaii Five-O, The Sopranos and the CBS drama, Code Black.
The main stage is just one of 6 performance stages at Pierogi Fest, featuring more than 50 acts including the “Who’s Smarter than a University of Chicago Physician.” In addition, the festival offers more than 75 food booths, 2 beer gardens, and 55 arts and crafts and tchotchke vendors.
Pierogi Fest, one of the Chicago area’s largest events and organized entirely by volunteers, has earned a number of accolades including:
- Readers Digest: One of America’s 50 best festivals
- MSN Eat This Not That- One of the 50 best food festivals in the US
- TripAdvisor- One of the 10 wackiest festivals on the planet
- One of the 25 best food festivals in North America by Saveur Magazine
- Pierogi Fest was the subject of a front-page article in the Wall Street Journal in 2015
- Named by Oprah Winfrey for five years straight as one of her favorite things to do
- Named for 21 consecutive years as the Times of Northwest Indiana's Best Festival
- A Blue-Ribbon Festival of Summer in 2013 by Yahoo.com
- The Heritage Award from the Polish National Congress
- Featured on The Food Channel, Travel Channel, Pawn Stars Chicago, Wild Chicago, Access Indiana, CNN, and television stations in Germany, Slovakia, Poland, China and Australia,
- Best of Indy Honorable Mention as best local festival even though the festival is held 165 miles from Indianapolis
- Featured on numerous nationally syndicated television shows including Wild Travels, Small Town, Big Deal and Hardcore Pawn Chicago
- It has been consistently cited as the most popular festival amongst extra-terrestrials when they are not buzzing US Navy fighter jets.
Pierogi Fest will be held Friday July 25th (11AM to 11PM), Saturday July 26th (11 AM to 11 PM) and Sunday July 27th (11AM to 5PM) in Downtown Whiting, Indiana.
