Dance All Year with the Polka Hall of Fame

It’s always a good time when the Polka Hall of Fame hosts a dance -- especially when the Fairport Jammers get the party going. The Fairport Harbor group was just voted Button Box Band of the Year. Enjoy them at the 35th Super Button Box Bash at the Slovenian Society Home in Euclid, Sunday, April 9.

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Swing your partner all through 2017 with dance events hosted by the National Cleveland-Style Polka Hall of Fame. Start with the 35th annual Super Button Box Bash on Sunday, April 9. Enjoy top polka talents and more than sixty accordions, plus jam sessions and nationality dining throughout the day at the Slovenian Society Home, 20713 Recher Avenue, in Euclid, Ohio, from 1:00 to 9:00 p.m.

There’s dancing in the streets at the Dyngus Day Festival on Easter Monday, April 17. Local legend DJ Kishka brings the Polka Hall of Fame to Detroit Avenue and West 58th in Cleveland, Ohio, for a day-long celebration of ethnic music and treats. The event is a top showcase for polka bands with non-stop music for dancing from 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Stroll to taverns and restaurants from West 58th to West 65th to enjoy your favorite polka performers. The Polka Pop-up Shop offers unique apparel for polka and nationality pride. 

The legendary Kenny Bass had a national reputation as a Cleveland-Style Polka bandleader and recording artist. The Polka Hall of Fame teams with SNPJ Lodge No. 5 to salute the man and his music on Sunday, August 20, at SNPJ Farm, 10946 Heath Road, in Kirtland, Ohio. Dance to a live band and indulge in a home-style dinner (roast beef or smoked sausage), a mile-high fried bologna sandwich, or freshly-made donuts. Father Frank Perkovich, the Polka Priest, arrives from Minnesota for the Polka Mass at 1:00. Dining begins after, along with dancing from 3:00 to 7:00.

America’s good-time music and Slovenia’s tasty, smoked klobasa team up for the Slovenian Sausage Festival, hosted by the Polka Hall of Fame at SNPJ Farm on Heath Road in Kirtland, Wednesday, September 13. Polka bands and sausage-makers tempt you with eight hours of dancing and dining, from 12:00 to 8:00 p.m. More than fifty accordionists and musicians are scheduled to perform. Bring your own squeezebox and join a jam session. 

When the autumn leaves turn, it’s time to take a turn on the dance floor at the Polka Hall of Fame Harvest Polka Party, Friday, October 6, at the Croatian Lodge, in Eastlake, Ohio. It’s an elegant evening of the finest Cleveland-Style polkas and waltzes with Klancnik and Friends and the Frank Stanger Orchestra. Come for dinner and stay for the dance, 6:00 to 11:00. Enjoy schnitzel dinners, sausages and nationality treats.

Then it’s time to roll out the barrel and the red carpet as the Polka Hall of Fame presents the 54nd annual Thanksgiving Polka Weekend, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, November 23, 24 and 25. Polka music’s grandest festival takes over the ballroom of the Downtown Cleveland Marriott Hotel with the Cleveland Style’s finest entertainers. The curtain rises on the 2017 Polka Music Awards Show, the sound’s premier event, on the ballroom stage, Saturday, November 25, at 2:00 p.m.

Pick up your tickets and a polka CD at the Gift Shop when you visit the Polka Hall of Fame and Museum, 605 East 222nd Street, Euclid, Ohio, in the historic old Euclid City Hall. Open Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday: 11 to 4. More than forty vintage accordions are on display, plus exhibits that trace the Cleveland Polka story. For more information, contact (216) 261-3263 or Polkashop at aol.com. Check out the website with hundreds of pages of polka stories at Polkafame.com.