The 89th annual Mahrajan Lebanese Festival has returned to Oglebay park

"This is one day we've been waiting for years and years," said pastor Monsignor Bakhos.

"After 2 years of covid, everybody likes to go out.. and look how the crowd is today."

Our lady of Lebanon Church of Wheeling hosts the festival every year. The festival took place at Oglebay’s Levinson shelter and included cultural food, drinks, live performances and more for free to the public and welcomed people of all ages.

"This festival is a tradition. This is like a family reunion. This is amazing,” said Liz Murad.

Murad and others say because of the break -- everyone looked forward to coming together and celebrate once again

"It's just good to get back to normal... see people," said Jeannette Wakim.

"I’ve seen a lot of faces that I haven’t seen in a while and you know not just recreating friendship, but sharing the culture with everybody too," said Louis Khourey.

And the event wasn't just attended by people from the Ohio valley. But saw people like Fouad Kazour who traveled in from Pittsburgh for this special festival.

“It's a very nice area," said Fouad Kazour. "Very nice, lovely wheeling. A lot of nice Lebanese and Mediterranean food. The community is very big, and the wheeling people support this Mahrajan for years and years."