Team & Leadership
No paid staff — just neighbours who show up, year after year, to plan, build and run the festival together.
The organizing core
Financial-literacy educator and certified Rotary trainer — the steady hand behind festival day at Riverside Park.
Ottawa-based entrepreneur and owner of bridal boutique ALICE, originally from Cherkasy, Ukraine.
Leads the festival's marketing and digital platform, plus the year-round UAFest.Business, Capital and Network projects.
Every dish, every stage cue, every craft table
Beyond the organizing core, dozens of named volunteers lead the departments that actually run festival day. This is the real roster — the same names credited in the festival's own thank-you posts each year.
Every borscht, varenyk and litre of uzvar — cooked from scratch, mostly at volunteers' own expense.
- Raisa Hordiychuk (Mama Raisa) — Kitchen lead / cuisine expert
- Anna Pientsova — Festival chef / F&B coordinator
- Nataliia Mosh — Borscht coordinator (30+ volunteers)
- Kateryna Shumenkova — Varenyky & korovai lead
- Marina Zavgorodniaya — Uzvar lead (500+ litres)
- Oksana Dyshlenko — Pyrizhky lead (3,000+ baked)
- Olga Shyrinska — Sweets & desserts
- Vadym Kucheriavyi — Kulish preparation
- Maia Geladze — Kitchen volunteer
- Nataliia Stepanenko — Kitchen team
- Oksana Mosiichuk — Head accountant / logistics
The stage, the workshops, the history exhibits — everything that makes UAFest feel like Ukraine.
Games, crafts and a full day of activities for the festival's youngest guests.
The relationships that fund the free admission and the year's charity partnership.
Registration, site prep and the hundred small things that make festival day run on time.
Behind every dish, every stage cue and every craft table is a team of neighbours donating their time — like the Kitchen Department pictured here, one of dozens of volunteer teams that make festival day possible, year after year.
Olga in action
Behind every stage cue and every pot of borscht is a neighbour who never clocks out. Olga Ialovenko leads UAFest as a volunteer, just like everyone else on the team.
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