Scheduling performers and advertising while fortifying a huge venue like the Soyuzivka Heritage Center for the influx of many hundreds of concertgoers usually requires many months of detailed work. But the Ukrainian Cultural Festival is such an important part of the mission of the Ukrainian National Foundation (UNF) that all involved rolled up their sleeves and completed the task in only three weeks (The VIP gala for donors was actually finalized with merely one week lead time).
UNF Board Member Valentyna Tabaka labored day and night to organize all the complicated aspects of the gala and concert. This was Ms. Tabaka’s first time coordinating these two aspects of the festival. In past years, many artists flew in from Ukraine to take part. But in spite of all the visa problems as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ms. Tabaka still managed to line up a strong cast of performers, either those already residing here or native-born Ukrainian-Americans (For more on this, see additional sidebar).
She was supported in her efforts by UNF Board Member and Treasurer Roma Lisovich as well as by UNF board members Taras Sochan, Stefan Kaczaraj and Yuriy Symczyk, who all attended the festival. All logistics for the events were ably handled by Soyuzivka management (Nestor Paslawsky and Stefko Drabyk) and staff.