The Polish community on the East Coast has completed the first of two weekends celebrating the milestone 60th edition of the Polish American Family Festival & Country Fair. For three days—from September 5 to 7—the grounds of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Częstochowa in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, were filled with Polish music, folk dances, food stalls serving pierogi and gołąbki, and white-and-red colors. The second, shorter weekend of the festival—September 12 and 13—is announced by the organizers as a continuation of this same anniversary edition.
From a Wooden Barn to a National Shrine
The history of the place that the Polish-American community simply calls the “American Częstochowa” began in the 1950s. Father Michał Zembrzuski, a Pauline father, brought a faithful copy of the icon of Our Lady of Częstochowa from Poland and, with the consent of the Apostolic See and the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, purchased land near Doylestown to build an American counterpart to the Jasna Góra sanctuary. On June 26, 1955, a small wooden chapel set up in a barn was consecrated—this date is considered the beginning of the shrine, and the first pilgrimage arrived there that same day from St. Lawrence parish in Philadelphia.
The modest chapel quickly became too small to hold the growing crowds of pilgrims, so in 1960, thanks to donations from the faithful, additional land was purchased and a new church was built on Beacon Hill, the highest elevation in Bucks County. On October 16, 1966, Archbishop of Philadelphia John Krol solemnly consecrated the new temple in the presence of U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson and his family. It was in that same year that the annual Polish-American Festival began to be organized on the shrine’s grounds—making today’s 2026 edition the exact sixtieth in a row.
A Place Visited by Presidents and a Future Pope
Over six decades, the American Częstochowa has hosted many notable guests. Karol Wojtyła, then Archbishop of Kraków, visited the shrine even before his election as pope, and in 1980, John Paul II personally blessed and signed the icon of Our Lady, which is now located in the lower church. That same year, on April 13, the shrine was visited by presidential candidate George H.W. Bush, and in subsequent years, President Ronald Reagan attended the festival’s finale. In 2005, the Golden Jubilee of the shrine’s 50th anniversary was celebrated here with the participation of cardinals from the Vatican, Poland, and the USA, and the site itself now holds the official title of National Shrine, bestowed by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Today, the 170-acre property features a church, a lower chapel, a retreat house, an outdoor Stations of the Cross, and a cemetery where artist Adam Styka, among others, is laid to rest.
What’s Next: The Second Weekend of September 12–13
The organizers invite everyone to the second, two-day installment of the festival on September 12 and 13, from 12:00 PM to 8:00 PM, at 654 Ferry Rd, Doylestown, PA. The program—much like the first weekend—features performances by musical and folklore ensembles on two stages, Polish cuisine (pierogi, kielbasa, gołąbki, potato pancakes, babka), handicraft booths, and attractions for children, including rides. Admission is $15, which includes stage performances and access to the festival rides; parking is free. This year, for the first time, a special bilingual edition of the “Biały Orzeł” (White Eagle) newspaper was also part of the event—a sign that the anniversary edition is attracting Polish-American media as well.
For many families from New York, New Jersey, or Philadelphia, the festival in Doylestown has long been a permanent fixture of the autumn Polish-American calendar—much like the Pulaski Day Parade on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, which takes place three weeks later on October 4. Both events share the same spirit: generations of Polish Americans gathering in places that their grandparents and parents built from scratch, often literally with their own hands and through donations collected in Polish parishes.
Father Zembrzuski, the founder of the shrine, passed away before its Golden Jubilee celebrations in 2005, but the tradition he started continues uninterrupted. What began as a wooden barn on a patch of land in Bucks County bought with donations from the faithful now holds the official title of National Shrine—and every year in September, it still transforms into one of the largest and longest-running Polish-American celebrations on the East Coast.
You can find the calendar of festivals, parties, and Polish-American events for the whole year in the Polish Pages directory.
