Team & Leadership

Olga Ialovenko is the festival director and lead organizer of UAFest, and president of the Ukrainian Community of Lanark County — the volunteer non-profit that runs the annual Ukrainian festival at Riverside Park in Carleton Place, Ontario. She leads UAFest as a volunteer, the same as everyone else on the team. She has been with the festival from the beginning. It grew out of a neighbourhood effort to help a Ukrainian family settle in Lanark County, and the first Ukrainian Fest Lanark County started from a garage sale in 2023. The Carleton Place Town Council has since designated the festival a culturally significant event, and in 2025 it welcomed more than 4,000 guests. In her own words: “We don't aim to be the biggest — we strive to be the most genuine and meaningful.” Away from festival day she is a financial-literacy educator and a certified Rotary trainer. She also coordinates the Rushnyk of Unity – Rushnyk of Victory Pan-American Tour, a separate body from the festival's organizing committee, keeping its route, its host communities and the handoff from city to city moving.

Anna Tkachenko is a co-organizer of UAFest 2026 and the owner of Wedding Boutique ALICE, the Ottawa bridal shop the festival lists among its organizing partners. The boutique introduces itself in its own words: "WEDDING & GRADUATION & EVENING & KIDS DRESSES 👗 in Ottawa, ON 🇨🇦 ✅ The best quality! ✅ European style!" Alongside the dresses it lists a custom tailoring service from a designer, a dress fitting service, and a dress cleaning service for its own dresses. Facebook files the page as a Bridal Shop, with delivery and in-store shopping, and shipping to Canada and the USA. A graduation-season post sets out how the made-to-order side works: "At ALICE Bridal Boutique, we offer custom evening and graduation dresses from Europe, created in beautiful designs and tailored according to your measurements." The post asks for consultations to be booked in advance — delivery takes approximately 1.5 months — and describes dresses for "graduation, prom, evening events, birthdays, and special celebrations." For brides, the boutique goes past the gown. "At Alice, we carry a curated selection of accessories — veils, crowns, earrings, hairpieces — each designed to complement your gown and bring your bridal vision to life," reads one of its reels, which ends with an invitation to "Send us a DM to book your fitting in Ottawa." Another reel describes a milk-white satin mermaid gown with a soft front slit and a shimmering lace insert, "designed for brides who adore clean lines and breathtaking detail."

Maksym Stepanenko is a co-organizer of UAFest and leads its marketing and its digital platform. He also leads the festival's three year-round projects: UAFest.Business, UAFest.Capital and UAFest.Network. The festival lists him as one of its spokespeople, for growth, partnerships, media and digital, in English and Ukrainian. On the Rushnyk of Unity – Rushnyk of Victory Pan-American Tour, a separate body from the festival's organizing committee, he carries marketing strategy: the tour's public story, its digital tools and its launch plan, so each new stop can be found and understood.

Olga leads UAFest's concert and cultural program from end to end: coordinating performers, music, dance, stage flow and the Ukrainian traditions that give the festival its heart. She hosted the 2024 and 2025 festivals with Mike Rynzak and continues to shape the program with the wider cultural team.

Yuliia is one of the organizers who turns UAFest plans into visible, partner-ready work. She coordinates sponsorship and partnership relationships, contributes the festival's visual design, and supports project administration, grant work and design for the Rushnyk of Unity – Rushnyk of Victory Pan-American Tour.