We are pleased to invite you to MELANKA, our annual winter feast and celebration, to close the holiday season and welcome the new year.
Our cherished Melanka is a time of dress up and mummery, carolling and jest, embracing joy and offering blessings for a bright, healthy year. Through the dark nights of winter, together we keep warmth alive within us by sharing songs, food, stories, customs and memories in community. We hold light up to each other as we close and open a cycle with love in our hearts. Please join us to toast to all of this—to celebrate and honour the beauty of our shared humanity!
As has become customary at Melanka, we will enjoy a potluck feast and cash bar (courtesy of Drom Taberna) along with toasting, traditional folk singing and an original "vertep" folk play. A dance (Zabava) will follow, debuting the Kryva Kosa house band and featuring Ukrainian, Lithuanian, Belarusian, Hungarian and Slovenian folk music and dance!
We invite you to come to Melanka dressed in your favourite folk garments. It is another way we care for our roots. We encourage wearing elements of our traditional attire as both a celebration of ancestry and living culture, and a symbol of our kinships.
TICKETS
Melanka is a family-friendly event and an offering of celebration to the community. We aim to make the cost of attending as accessible as possible. We ask, if you are able, to please give more. This helps everyone attend, regardless of their income or financial means. It also helps sustain the Folk Camp / Kosa Arts organization.
Please choose from the following ticket options what is best suited to you. For member pricing, please renew or purchase your new membership for 2025 !
GENERAL | $40
SUPPORTER | $60
STUDENT / SENIOR / REFUGEE | $25
MEMBER | $25**
ZABAVA (DANCE PARTY) | $20***
CHILDREN UNDER 12 | FREE ENTRY
**If you have a family membership, please email finances@folkcamp.ca to discuss ticket options.
***This is a ticket for the dance party only, which begins at 9 pm.
If you do not currently have the financial means to purchase a ticket at the costs listed above, please contact Jurgita by e-mail regarding volunteer work-trade options: jogitasa@jogitasa@gmail.com
WHEN & WHERE
This season's gathering will take place on Saturday, January 25th, 2025 at the Belarusian Centre*, located at 524 St Clarens Ave, Toronto (near Lansdowne subway station). We are very grateful for the on-going support and generosity extended to us by our friends of the Autocephalous Orthodox Parish of St. Kiryla of Turau.
Arrive by 6 pm with your potluck item
(see THE FEAST section)
Buffet-style dinner will begin at 7 pm
Zabava (Dance) from 9 pm - 1 am
*This venue requires access by stairs. Therefore, it is unfortunately not fully accessible. We recognize that is a limitation and a barrier and will strive to improve on this for future events.
THE FEAST
A potluck dinner means that everyone attending Melanka contributes to the nourishing and delicious spread that will make up our generous table. Once you have purchased your Melanka ticket, please fill in the potluck sign-up sheet here.
Please prepare a dish that has at least 8-10 servings and bring your own serving dish and utensils!
If you are unable to prepare a dish in this quantity, you are welcome to join us in making cabbage rolls at the event venue on Friday, January 24th, from 5 - 9 pm. This will count towards your potluck contribution.
Examples of the kinds of dishes we are looking for:
Baked chicken / pork
Baked fish
Hearty salads (eg. potato salad, bean salad, beet salad or “shuba” (layered pickled herring salad)
Cabbage rolls (with meat or meatless)
Varenyky (dumplings with potato or sauerkraut)
Mushrooms / mushroom sauce
Accoutrements: pickles, sauerkrauts, relishes, sour cream, butter!
Desserts!
Uzvar (stewed fruit / compote)
Kolach (“challah”) ie. braided bread for our ceremonial table
We encourage you to collaborate on your potluck contribution within your family / friend group so that we have less dishes on the table (eg. bring one double sized dish as a couple).
Indicate in the sign-up sheet linked above what dish you will bring. When a particular area is full, please consider signing up for what is most needed.
If you are coming to make food on Friday as part of the community cook-up, sign up under the “workbee” column!
GET INVOLVED!
WE MAKE MELANKA TOGETHER
Like all of our year-round happenings, Melanka is an event organized and run with love largely by the volunteer efforts of our community. You can help us make Melanka 2025 another memorable celebration. When you purchase your ticket, please let us know if you are available to have a hands-on role for the event. Our biggest needs centre around physical set up for the event, helping run the dinner service during Melanka, and cleaning up at the end of the night.
We will be setting up decor and seating for Melanka on Friday, January 24th, from 5 - 9 pm. Cleanup will take place immediately after the event finishes on Sunday, from 1 am - 2 am.
Please come in the spirit of lending a hand over the course of the night, in whatever capacity you are physically comfortable. For example, transitioning from dinner to dance takes some coordinated effort! Every little bit helps. If you have ever attended Folk Camp, you understand that it takes the village to create the magic!
We look forward to seeing you to welcome 2025 together.
With love, Folk Camp / Kosa Arts