The National Cleveland-Style Polka Hall of Fame and Museum
605 East 222nd Street Euclid, Ohio 44123
Bill Azman Meat Market Takes Two Titles
at Polka Hall of Fame Sausage Fest
The Bill Azman Meat Market scored a twin win at the ninth annual Slovenian Sausage Festival on Wednesday, September 12, hosted by the National Cleveland-Style Polka Hall of Fame and Museum.
More than 1,000 hungry music-lovers enjoyed a picture-perfect day of polka music and savory sausages at the SNPJ Farm in Kirtland, Ohio. Sixty musicians and accordionists, including Canada’s Polka King Walter Ostanek, volunteered to perform seven hours of music at the annual fund-raiser for the Polka Hall of Fame.
Between dances, visitors sampled sausages from vendors and voted their favorite. Both the People's Choice Award and the Best of Sausage Fest jury prize went to the Bill Azman Meat Market of Euclid, Ohio. Azman achieved notice a few years ago when U. S. astronaut Sunita Williams took Azman’s signature sausages aboard a Space Shuttle flight. Williams was born in Euclid.
As winner of the Best of Sausage Fest, Azman’s prize sausages will be served at the Polka Hall of Fame’s three-day polka dance marathon over Thanksgiving weekend, November 22, 23 and 24 at Cleveland’s Downtown Marriott Hotel.
First-time entrant Jeff Godina of Sharon, Pennsylvania, was the jury’s runner-up for top sausage. Hocevar’s Maple Heights Catering of Ohio took runner-up for People’s Choice.
"Good food, good music and good people – what a great time!” said Peter Pattison, a visitor from Australia who served on the festival jury. “I’m glad I made the trip.”
Slovenian sausages (kranjske klobase) are regional American specialties prepared from recipes brought to the United States by immigrants from Slovenia. They are made from pork, often accented with garlic, and then cured and smoked. More than four hundred pounds of sausages were consumed at the event as well as countless strudels and poticas, a Slovenian nut roll pastry.
The National Cleveland-Style Polka Hall of Fame and Museum celebrates the city's indigenous dance music with audio exhibits, historic photographs and original instruments. The music genre emerged from the city’s Slovenian neighborhoods a century ago and became a nationwide sensation in the decade after World War II. Each year, the Polka Hall of Fame’s 1,500 members nominate and vote for polka performers and recordings in various categories. The 25th annual awards ceremony on Saturday, November 24, 2012, at Euclid Auditorium, is the high point of the Polka Hall of Fame’s Thanksgiving weekend music festival.
The Polka Hall of Fame is located at 605 East 222nd Street in Euclid, Ohio, in the city’s historic former city hall. For more information, check the website at www.polkafame.com or call (216) 621- FAME.
Bill Azman’s Meat Market in Euclid, Ohio, receives the People’s Choice award banner at the 9th annual Slovenian Sausage Festival sponsored by the National Cleveland-Style Polka Hall of Fame and Museum. The winner’s banner was presented by Polka Hall of Fame President Joe Valencic. Canada’s Polka King Walter Ostanek approves from the stage. More than 1,000 attended the event on September 12, 2012, at SNPJ Farm in Kirtland, Ohio.
Polka all-stars turned out to play for the seven-hour dance marathon at the 2012 Slovenian Sausage Festival sponsored by the National Cleveland-Style Polka Hall of Fame and Museum at SNPJ Farm in Kirtland, Ohio, on September 12. Ron Sluga, Mark Habat, Canada’s Polka King Walter Ostanek and Bobby Kravos performed for the benefit of the Polka Hall of Fame.
Accordionists Kolman Weindorfer and Bob Zgonc led a button box jam session at the 9th annual Slovenian Sausage Festival sponsored by the National Cleveland-Style Polka Hall of Fame and Museum at SNPJ Farm in Kirtland, Ohio. More than 1,000 attended the event on September 12, 2012.
Two chefs serve up Jeff Godina’s products at the 2012 Slovenian Sausage Festival sponsored by the National Cleveland-Style Polka Hall of Fame and Museum at SNPJ Farm in Kirtland, Ohio, on September 12. Godina, a first-time entrant from Sharon, Pennsylvania, was runner-up for the jury’s prize. More than 1,000 visitors snapped up 400 pounds of Slovenian sausages at the event, a fund-raiser for the Polka Hall of Fame.
The grand jury at the 2012 Slovenian Sausage Festival chose Bill Azman’s Meat Market in Euclid, Ohio, as Top Klobasa. The event was a fund-raiser for the National Cleveland-Style Polka Hall of Fame and Museum at SNPJ Farm in Kirtland, Ohio, on September 12. Left to right: Bob Zgonc (Pennsylvania), Kathleen Trebets (Ohio), Peter Pattison (Australia), Richard Kozar (California) and Jan Horvath (Ohio).
Hall Of Fame Stars Rock Accordion Exhibit Premier
More than 100 music fans enjoyed a polka jam session at the opening of “All-Star Accordions: Celebrity Squeezeboxes and Their Stories,” the new exhibition at the National Cleveland-Style Polka Hall of Fame and Museum in Euclid, Ohio. Guests were greeted by accordionists led by Hall of Fame trustees Bob Kravos, Joe Novak and Duffy O’Neill at the March 21 event. Newly elected President Joe Valencic,who organized the exhibition, shared the stories of historic diatonic, chromatic and piano accordions on display, including those belonging to Johnny Pecon, Johnny Vadnal, Frank Yankovic, and Matt Hoyer, who organized the first Cleveland-style band after World War I. Kathy Debevits edited a collection of music videos showing many of the accordions
“The accordions are the actual instruments that got America dancing the Cleveland-style polka,” explained Valencic, a co-founder of the Polka Hall of Fame. “Richie Vadnal’s accordion got Slovenia dancing Cleveland-style, too. He was a hit in the homeland in the 1970s and 1980s. And this accordion made it possible.” Vadnal lent his polka tour accordion to the exhibition.
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