PL

FESTIVAL OF THE CHILDREN OF MOUNTAINS 1992-2017 IS...

21 August 2017
  • the brainchild and initiative of Antoni Malczak, the director general of SOKÓŁ Małopolska Cultural Centre in Nowy Sącz, the passion and dedication of all the employees and associates of the Institution in the consistent pursuit of the Festival principles, as well as the support of local authorities, co-organisers, sponsors and media partners

  • the talent of Józef Broda, the “soul of the Festival,” concert director and host, as well as the dedication of his assistants

  • the friendly International Artistic Committee, which over the years has been composed of a total of 36 members

  • the work of the ORGANISING OFFICE headed by Marzanna Raińska (1992-2003), Liliana Olech (2004-2006), Małgorzata Kalarus (2007-2017)

  • 303 children’s ensembles, including 153 foreign ones from 62 countries of all the continents, and 150 Polish ones, which… in turn has involved the same number of the Nowy Sącz town keys manufactured by NEWAG and handed over during the inaugural concert, and the same number of the lambs – the Festival mascots manufactured by MAKOWIANKA Folk and Artistic Handicraft Cooperative from the town of Maków Podhalański and presented to the ensembles as mementos at the Festival closing

  • the largest ensemble numbering 180 members (!!!), which represented Japan at the Festival in 1997

  • the Festival logotype, which from the original kite morphed into a little, colourful pinwheel designed by Alfred Kotkowski in 1998, and revamped by Magdalena Fajfer in 2007

  • the first Festival printed matter painstakingly and arduously set at the Sącz Publishing House. Year by year they have been growing richer in colours, pictures, photographs and designer graphics
  • … and all these graphics have been interspersed with the WORDS by Henryk Cyganik – hundreds of articles, columns and press releases telling the most beautiful tale about children’s friendship

  • all the languages of the world (the participants in the first festival were presented with mini dictionaries of useful words and phrases in Polish, English, French, Italian, Slovakian, Hungarian and Slovene), and among this multitude of lingoes, intrepid interpreters for the ensembles and the Artistic Committee, and translators of the Festival printed matter – all intent on making a LITERAL success of the idea of comradeship

  • … which is aided by the IRREPLACEABLE ensemble guides and aides

  • 50 Festival Masses celebrated at St Margaret’s Basilica by, among others, Rev. Prof. Józef Tischner, Rev. Władysław Zązel, Rev. Stanisław Kowalik

  • 25 meetings at the Town Hall, where the Festival participants were warmly welcomed by the town and region authorities

  • 25 parades leading up to the inaugural concerts and headed by a horse-mounted entourage provided by the Stud Farm of Andrzej Woda from Klimkówka. On 26 July 1992, the first parade set off from the Railwayman’s Culture Centre, in the subsequent years the starting point was Nadbrzeżna Street, while nowadays it is Barska Street. But the destination has always been the same – Nowy Sącz old market square! With music, dancing, singing and a literally thunderous welcome to the Children of Mountains under the invariably clear and firework-spangled sky

  • the big top tent in Al. Wolności Street and the Villa “Marya” in Jagiellońska Street – the first concert venue and the first organising office. The two places where everything began…

  • … but the time came when the tent was bursting at the seams with the thronging audience and so the year 1997 saw an introduction of token payment tickets, which to this day have been coupled with a tombola. The first winners took home a rubber dinghy!

  • since 2002 the multi-purpose hall has been playing host to the exciting and thrilling evening concerts, comrade dances and, last but not least, contact with the warm-hearted audience

  • the innumerable attendant events: fairs, local cuisine tasting treats, handicraft displays, exhibitions, visual arts contests, workshops and the CIOFF International Conference “Ethnopedagogy and contemporary education of children” organised in 2012

  • free time – only for the children of mountains – when they go rafting down the Dunajec river, take sightseeing tours around Małopolska, together play and learn, bathe in swimming pools in Rytro, Tęgoborze, Gorlice, Nowy Sącz, and play matches, e.g. the 1995 football match at the “Sandecja” FC stadium between Europe (Czech Republic, Greece, Poland, Romania) and South America (Argentina, Brazil), which was refereed, in an honorary capacity, by the first secretary of the Embassy of India, and which ended with the score of 3-4

  • the vibrant ensemble accommodation centres in Nowy Sącz, Nawojowa, Cieniawa, Piwniczna, Myślec, Stary Sącz, Rytro, Tęgoborze, Gołkowice

  • the spontaneous farewell-to-town events… though the first one in 1992 was arranged by Majka Jeżowska and Rudi Schubert!

  • the extraordinary and inimitable final concerts masterminded by Józef Broda in the course of the Festival week, and concluded with the genuine feeling of parting sadness, tears of promise and true belief that the children of mountains will never forget one another

  • the bonfire – a grand farewell party under the open sky, in Piwniczna, Małe Ciche, Rytro, Nowy Sącz, Cieniawa, Nawojowa

  • the jubilee publications: the coffee-table book by Sylwester and Jakub Adamczyk, containing a text by Henryk Cyganik, Dictionary and Manual of the Festival of the Children of Mountains by Jakub Bulzak and Kamil Cyganik, Around the World with the Children of Mountains by Marzanna Raińska

  • the year 2001 in which the Festival was cancelled…

  • and finally the great question of how much of the Nowy Sącz Festival the now grown-up children of mountains remember, and what will make the memories for the children taking part in this jubilee edition?