Roseville’s Vernon Street Town Square will host the Romanian Community Center of Sacramento’s festival this Saturday, marking its 25th year. The free, all-ages event is scheduled from noon to 9 p.m., with Romanian food, live music, folk dancing and artisan vendors; organizers expect thousands of attendees.
The Romanian Community Center of Sacramento has organized the annual festival since it began in 2001 as a gathering of Romanian immigrant families in Rancho Cordova, according to the Sacramento Bee. Boris Budac, the center's event organizer and treasurer, told the paper that continuing the tradition started by his parents' generation is an honor. The event has since become a cultural showcase open to the wider capital region, the Bee reports.
The center's current president, Abigaila Budac, led the organization's Cultural Department until 2013 before becoming president, according to AGERPRES, Romania's national news agency. AGERPRES describes the organization as nonprofit and apolitical and reports that it runs cultural programs in the Sacramento region.
A Global Connection to Transylvania
The student folk group Ansamblul Folcloric Studențesc “Mărțișorul,” formed at the Students' Cultural House in Cluj-Napoca, is scheduled to perform, according to Budac's account to the Sacramento Bee. The ensemble is traveling from Transylvania to California and plans a three-part program featuring different Romanian dance traditions.
The Ensemble’s Roots in Cluj-Napoca
According to Mărțișorul’s official history, the ensemble was founded in February 1957 at the proposal of Laurențiu Hodorog, the first director of the Students’ Cultural House in Cluj-Napoca. The group’s current repertoire includes Romanian folk songs and dances from most of the country’s ethnographic regions.
“We live so far from Romania, but we’re still able to keep the culture alive and share it with the wider Sacramento and Roseville area,” Budac said, per the Bee's reporting. Festival-goers will also find a beer and wine garden serving adults 21 and older, along with vendors offering artisan goods throughout the day.
Noroc Restaurant Joins the Festival
Carmichael's Noroc Restaurant is among the festival's food vendors and will serve traditional Romanian fare, according to the Bee.
A Community Built Over Decades
Speranța Romanian Baptist Church is located in Rancho Cordova, according to nonprofit research firm Cause IQ.
The Romanian Community Center also runs year-round programming beyond the fall festival, including a winter Carol Festival, January literary evenings honoring poet Mihai Eminescu for Romanian Culture Day, and sports picnics, per AGERPRES and the center's own event listings.
Estimates of the region's Romanian population vary by source and measure. The Sacramento Bee, citing Neilsberg research based on U.S. Census data, reports just under 10,000 Romanian residents in the Sacramento metro area. The U.S. Census Bureau says the American Community Survey asks about ancestry to identify the population's ethnic origins; ancestry estimates therefore should not be read as counts of birthplace or citizenship. AGERPRES reports that the festival draws more than 6,000 people, including participants from the broader Eastern European and Moldovan-Romanian community.
Getting There Saturday
Downtown Roseville organizers have arranged free designated public parking in two multi-level city structures at 405 Vernon Street and 200 Oak Street to handle the crowds expected at Vernon Street Town Square, according to official event listings on Eventeny. With free admission and a lineup spanning food, music and dance, organizers are hoping this year's milestone anniversary draws one of the festival's largest crowds yet.
