It’s that time of year again when festival season is in full swing. The City of Portage will celebrate Nativity Festival this weekend hosted by the Nativity of our Savior Parish in Portage. This year marks the 50th Anniversary of the Nativity Fest which will run from July 9th to July 12th. Along with the live entertainment and numerous attractions for the whole family, Nativity Fest will include “the BEST FOOD this side of Heaven!’.
“We have some great events planned this year,” said Eva Curry, who wears many hats for the Parish but works mainly as an Administrative Assistant for the church.
“We’ll have around two music events each night with a huge beer garden and karaoke on Sunday,” Curry said. “We’re going to have Bingo, a gaming room and a booth that will feature Pull Tabs. There will be some delicious food here too like tacos, sauerkraut, and dumplings. You name it, we’ll have it! We have lots and lots of rides for children and adults as well.”
“There’s going to be a little kids booth where every person is a winner,” said Curry. “The neat thing is that we have a ministry here called ‘Prayer Shawl’ and they made the cutest little cloth bags with handles for the prizes. Each child is going to get one of these cloth bags that were handmade from scrap material. It’s going to be great especially for the little ones because even if they didn’t win anything they will still get to take something home and we want to make them feel special no matter what.”
“We’re going to have a Corn Roast that is outta this world,” Curry continued. “They roast the corn a certain way and it’s always been so popular. They always run out so that tells you something!”
“This year we’ll be having our Big Raffle again,” Curry said. “Tickets are $5 apiece and the big prize this year is $10,000! We have ten prizes all together for the Raffle starting with first place at $10,000 and working down to second place at $5,000, third place is $2,000, fourth is $1,000 and then on down from there.”
With good weather, Nativity Fest could expect to see upwards of 10,000 people come out to enjoy the great work that Rev. Andrew Corona and the many parishioners, who volunteered their time, have done to make sure this years festival is a success.
Curry also spoke about how Nativity of Our Savior Parish helps those living in poverty within the community.
“We have a food pantry and we’re trying to get our St. Vincent De Paul up and running again,” Curry said. “Our food pantry is phenomenal. We have so many volunteers from our parish and they help in such a great way. We also help the community through Meals On Wheels and we’re active with the soup kitchen located at St. Teresa of Avila in Valparaiso.”
To find out more information about this years Nativity Festival visit their event page here: https://www.facebook.com/events/859550050780184/