Day of the croats and the spiš highlanders / main concert

There was a thunderstorm over Nowy Sącz today. Clouds were rolling in from the west as, before midday, the ensembles ŚFABELKI from Trybsz and CROATIA from Zagreb performed excerpts from their evening concerts. A big change this year: these previews are not taking place in the Market Square, as they used to, nor in the Stara Sandecja Common – as they did last year – but in the courtyard of SOKÓŁ MCC. The audience can take advantage of over a hundred comfortable seats, and the children - of the facilities provided by the organisers of the FESTIVAL OF THE CHILDREN OF MOUNTAINS. The latter came in handy on Thursday at midday. It started to rain as the Croatian ensemble were still performing. They bravely finished their act and took shelter from the fierce storm, which nearly swept the ice-cream-shaped balloon away from the lawn in front of the multi-purpose hall on the Kamienica river.

Could anyone imagine – as Katarzyna Bobak, the Artistic Committee’s coordinator, pointed out – a combination of Polish consonants more challenging for foreigners than that found in the phrase: ŚFABELKI from Trybsz in Spisz? A real tongue-twister for those with vocal tracts unaccustomed to such phonological challenges.

Mum, dad, home – the subsequent days of the Festival form a path that leads straight and surely towards the concept that unites all the previous ones: LOVE. And love – contrary to popular belief – is not a feeling! It is an attitude towards the other, towards God, towards the world – an attitude we can, though we do not have to, choose to adopt.

On Thursday evening, we welcom the following guests to our audience: Jan Łosakiewicz, a former president of the Polish section of CIOFF; Jakub Jamróz, the chief of the Łapsze Niżne Commune; Joanna Słowik, the secretary of the Łapsze Niżne Commune; Dorota Włoch, the chairwoman of the Łapsze Niżne Commune Council; Fr. Rajmund Andrzej Dziadkiewicz (OCist), the parish priest of St. Elizabeth of Hungary Parish in Trybsz; Irena Rataj, a councillor for Nowy Targ County; Józef Gronka, a councillor for the Łapsze Niżne Commune, with his wife; and Krystyna Milaniak, the head of the Community Centre in Łapsze Niżne. 

We’re off to Spisz. The name ŚFABELKI – in our parlance – means ‘matches’. Today they’re kindling love, although, as we’ll soon see, it’s carefully concealed behind certain stereotypes. 

It looks as though someone has come here to tidy up the stage, although, of course, the cottages visible in the background suggest they’re actually tidying up the farmyard. Or perhaps the roads? “And in our very own Trybsz…” the brooms go swish, swish across the stage, the water goes splash, splash. The lasses are working, but what about the lads? Perhaps they could help? Well, they can’t... because they’re so busy fixing the broom. All of them! “Let the boys do the cleaning – they’ve got both hands in good working order,” sing the girls, who just a moment ago chucked their brooms onto the ground in protest. As Leonard Cohen once sang: “There is a war between the man and the woman,” and here, in this war, we have reached a stalemate. What shall we do? One girl, like Solomon, adjudicates: first we’ll have a bit of fun together, and then we’ll tidy up together.

First, they play at being workers. 

They’ll need brooms for the next game. They stand in a circle. One of them shouts “jonapodkiwano,” and everyone lets go of the broom they’re holding, and rushes to the next one to grab it. If you don’t catch it, you’re out. And now: “The broom goes around and around, changing places, and whoever holds it too long, will be turned to stone.” Whoever is left standing with this farmyard-tidying implement,once they’ve finished singing, must kneel down and is out of the game.

Brooms aside! A rope is now employed. One girl jumps over it, then another, though this one only briefly. The third one jumps a bit longer. At last, a boy. He’s not good at it. He can’t even get a single jump right.

Now, one after another, they are walking as if underneath a bridge, both with their arms raised, but the moment sung are the words: “the bridge is collapsing, so not everyone can move on,” the “bridge’s” arms drop, and whoever they catch in between, goes to the left or to the right. Thus, two teams are formed, and they’ll try to out-tug each other in the final round of the game. The bridge is cracking.

Two lads are passing their hats back and forth between their heads. The others are singing: "I've got a hat, I've got one, but I don't know who to give it to…" 

And a moment later, a proper fight breaks out: four lads are leaping. Each one on one leg; each one is trying to knock the others over, or at least to make them lean on their other leg, the one which is temporarily not in use.

Counting rhymes: “The devil’s sitting on the barn roof…”, and then what an apt truth: “He who has bees has honey; he who has children has a stink” – whoever is picked becomes a blind man’s buff of sorts, or... a dark bat, who decides whether to look for those who stamp their feet, clap their hands, or perhaps just whisper… 

Time to get down to work. After all, that’s what was agreed before the fun began. But before that, they’ll just sing together. Their voices are pure, bright and as vast as the sky above the mountains on the screen at the back of the stage. We can imagine that it is a sense of honesty that compels them to finish tidying up. At any rate, they take all the brooms and, singing along to the music, leave the stage.


Today, to the tune of the “Siskin” we sing “That’s how love comes about.” We send this love, born in this way, to all our viewers watching us at home.


The performance by the Croatian group begins with a singing girl wrapped in a beautiful red scarf. With every word, she takes us to the sunny beaches of the Adriatic just as effectively as the scenery on the screen at the back of the stage.

Dancing without music. Just the girls’ feet thumping against the stage boards. The thumps are getting stronger and stronger. The line of girls sweeps along the one wearing a red headscarf. Faster and faster, stronger and stronger, and then, after a moment, slower and slower again… and quieter.

Music. First, a gentle pizzicato from two violinists. The girls begin: light steps, completely different from the ones just a moment ago. And along with them, the bows begin running along the strings of the Croatian musical band.

Dancing and singing. Snaking lines intertwining, joining and parting. A moment later - pairs. Finally, in the next dance, all the girls form a circle. Yes, because the CROATIA ensemble consists solely of the (impressively) fair sex. In the circle, dancing alternates with marching, and while they’re marching, they’re singing. And pairs again. Handkerchiefs – such a simple item, yet one that’s becoming a thing of the past. A hand “armed” with a handkerchief can be seen from a distance. It’s like a sign: here I am, I remember. Perhaps I am saying hello? Or am I saying goodbye? I love!


The children from Trybsz are returning in their traditional costumes. A lot of white. The girls are wearing skirts and aprons, and the boys are wearing light-coloured trousers with red trimmings, as well as those distinctive green waistcoats… The Festival stage fills with dancing couples performing wałaski, cardas, kulawy, chodzony, krzyżowa polka, and mazur.


Greeted in the Croatian style, the ensemble from Zagreb returns to the stage. Including their previous performance, as a whole the girls present the programme “Our Great Circle Dance,” showcasing the culture of various Croatian regions: Draganić, Zagorje and Međimurje. There were polkas, čardaš, drmeš, šroteš and oberštajer, and as for the sphere where the word meets and intertwines with music, we had an opportunity to hear the magnificently performed folk songs depicting changing time and space – from the 19th-century rural settlements to the contemporary reality of a young resident of the Balkan country.

"W moim ogródecku rośnie rózycka," I can hear... but I can’t believe my ears. After all, just a moment ago it was the ensemble from Croatia that performed on stage! And nothing has changed. These are still the girls from Zagreb, who just decided to bid us farewell on this Thursday evening with a very well-known Polish song! Oh, they know how to tug at the audience’s heartstrings.