The pinwheel, or a sketch about the FESTIVAL OF THE CHILDREN OF MOUNTAINS

From lofty peaks, sprawling mountain pastures, and from deep ravines the wind rushes towards the valleys. It rustles the leaves, wrinkles the surface of the waters, sways the wheat fields, and yanks at the children’s unruly mops of hair. And if it gets a little lucky, it’ll fall into the twisted arms of a colourful pinwheel,  whirling it, twirling it, and interlaced like a plait it will fly on. Overjoyed. Amused...

And the pinwheel will stay. Though it would probably love to choose freedom and dart on with the wind mischief... But it will not. It might shed some colours in dance, like the panther sheds its spots in a poem by the master poet Brzechwa. “Hey!” - it'll think to himself - “where's my freedom?!” The colourful slacker doesn't know that if granted freedom, it would only fly for a split second with the treacherous wind, which would eventually abandon it somewhere by a balk...

However, it keeps whirling merrily, as it is fixed on a wooden, or perhaps plastic stick, and the stick is held by a strong hand. It does not end there. There is an arm and... a whole man.

Let us take a closer look at him. It's worth it! At first glance - he is cutting a strange figure. Apparently dressed in folk costume, but it’s impossible to guess the region. Each element derives from a different one. A walking collage of sorts. He combines elements originated by the highlanders of Podhale, Żywiec, Łącko, by the Lachs and Krakowiaks, and we could go on and on until we list them all. And with regard to his soul and mind, it gets even more interesting. There, we will find traces of Oskar Kolberg, Wincenty Pol, Zygmunt Gloger, Izydor Kopernicki, Seweryn Udziela... And then our bizarre figure will say something in the voice of Roman Reinfuss, Danuta Horn, Aleksandra Szurmiak-Bogucka... And many, many others.

Because there would be no pinwheel if it were not for the hand, and there would be no hand without all the richness of folk culture and those giants who cared for this culture and demanded absolute memory for it. They sacrificed their lives for it.

And most importantly: this strange, multicoloured figure, in which we can find the vibrant verses of “The Wedding,” as well as the paragraphs of “In the Rocky Podhale" and "The Peasants,” stands firmly on the ground. On this land!

Let us take a look at the hand. Five fingers tightly clenched on a slender stick - it is like a foundation. This is where the pinwheel's life begins. It's not about anatomy, so it's hard to say how many fingers this hand has, but the most important ones should be pointed out.

Antoni Malczak, standing on the shoulders of the giants of folklore, inspired by their ideas, breathed life into this thought, into this dream of a beautiful festival. One in which folk groups of children from Poland, especially from mountainous regions, and from abroad, especially from countries with mountains, would meet. And if we were to ask: what certainly existed from the very beginning, from the first edition of the FESTIVAL OF THE CHILDREN OF MOUNTAINS, the one in 1992, we would have to say: comradeship!

Just as Antoine de Saint-Exupéry gave the Little Prince and the Pilot seven days to build some bond, that is, to befriend each other, so the French existentialist’s namesake, Antoni Malczak, the director of the then Province Culture Centre (WOK) in Nowy Sącz, gave one week to Children form All the Mountains of the World. From the very beginning, the fertile soil for the relationships between the young people was provided by this unchanging arrangement: a Polish ensemble is staying, performing, travelling around the region along with a particular foreign ensemble.

I will write about these first comrade couples when we get to the blades of the colourful pinwheel. For now, we are still at the hand, at the foundation of the Festival.

Among the fingers firmly holding the Festival pinwheel from the very beginning is Józef Broda. Antoni Malczak often recalls the day he visited Józef on his “wyrszczek” (the mountain peak where his house stands). Today, it is hard to imagine that the request that the “Don Quixote of Istebna” - as Józef was referred to in the 2nd issue of the Festival's journal “Kite” - take it upon himself to lead and direct the Festival that was hatching from a dream, was not obvious. And it was not obvious, after all. Though not for Antoni. The director of WOK in Nowy Sącz could not imagine anyone else standing on the stage of the Festival of the Children of Mountains as the concert host. Did Józef Broda sense that he would not easily get rid of the pesky guest? Or perhaps his extraordinary imagination made him realise that this would be a very special event, and that the starring role would be played by children, whom he, after all, loved so much.

Józef Broda has become the link between all the editions of the Festival so far. Without his patient, watchful presence, there would not have been so many words that for thirty years have made the Nowy Sącz audience aware of the value and significance of what is happening on stage, and in the case of “exotic” ensembles, also of the very meaning. But for Józef, there would be no “I am, I have, I will give,” which, along with the three uncomplicated movements understandable to any child, takes the essence of friendship from the abstract, into the realm of a simple gesture. Still a symbol, but much closer to children’s nature than the grand notion of "friendship" itself. There would be no "Hey-hey-ing," which since the Festival's inception has invariably energised the audience. And there would be no: “Life is like a river, life is like a bird... love never ends...,” and there would be no farewell phrase: “it’s time to go home.”

And what about the mountain shepherd trumpet, with which Józef Broda begins and ends every Festival, as well as begins every concert? That is quite a symbol! The link connecting not only all the 29 editions of the Nowy Sącz Festival to date, but also reaching back to the pre-war history. From the very beginning, Antoni Malczak would say that the FESTIVAL OF THE CHILDREN OF MOUNTAINS “is a conscious reference to the activity engaged in by the Association of the Mountain Lands before World War II, to the title of the Festival of Mountains.” The event mentioned by Antoni Malczak was held in 1935-38. The last meeting began with an extremely interesting event, one could say: a symbol. Let us quote from the first issue of “The Kite,” which in turn cites an account by the 1938 Nowy Sącz “Yearbook of the Mountain Lands:”

The regional shows at the Mountain Congress in Nowy Sącz took place on 12-15 August 1938, in the courtyard of the newly renovated and tidied-up Jagiellonian Castle. (...) they began with a “call resounding from the Olza River up to the Cheremosh River.” It was meant to express the symbolic reunion of the Carpathian highlanders, where a gazdosz (farmsteader) from Istebna, playing a young shepherd's long trumpet, was answered from afar by a Hutsul trumpet player from a mountain pasture on the Cheremosh River.

Today, only ruins remain of the Castle on the Dunajec River. Those who remembered the “Festival of the Mountains” are no longer with us, but for 30 years now the gazdosz from Istebna has been calling at the FESTIVAL OF THE CHILDREN OF MOUNTAINS, as if the trumpet from almost a century ago was still resounding over Nowy Sącz and the entire Carpathians. And although the instrument on the Cheremosh River does not echo back, for four decades now young shepherds from all over the world have been flocking to the confluence of the Dunajec and Kamienica rivers in response to this poignant sound.

And for four decades now Józef Broda has been presenting the Artistic Committee from the festival stage. From the very beginning, one of the most important words, for Antoni Malczak, defining the FESTIVAL OF THE CHILDREN OF MOUNTAINS was: “authenticity.” On the one hand, the children were to sing and dance according to tradition, dress according to tradition, and - most importantly at the Festival - play on stage according to tradition. Thus,  each ensemble preparing a performance is faced with an important task: to ask their grandparents how their grandparents used to play when they still had their own grandparents. Or to go over source texts in search of descriptions of games from a century and more ago. Or to rummage around in attics, because there may still be some old toys from a hundred or more years ago... And then these discoveries should be arranged into a drama, with some added dance and music. Live music only!

And the next day after the concert, from the very first edition of the Festival, there was some time scheduled for each ensemble to meet with the Artistic Committee, which had a particularly important task: to match the ensemble’s performance to this key word: AUTHENTICITY.

Many great experts in folklore, ethnographers, musicologists, choreographers, both from Poland and abroad, had - we can probably say so - the honour of sitting in the FESTIVAL OF THE CHILDREN OF MOUNTAINS auditorium to evaluate the Festival presentations. They always had a good word for the children. If there has ever been criticism, it was directed at those responsible for authenticity, the instructors!

The beginnings were modest, although a well-known saying about quantity and quality immediately springs to mind. The Artistic Committee of the first FESTIVAL OF THE CHILDREN OF MOUNTAINS had three members: Danuta Horn, Aleksandra Bogucka and Benedykt Kafel. Benedykt Kafel, an ethnographer who has a day job in Nowy Sącz, continues to do this honour to this day, and is the only committee member to have attended all the editions.

The next year, the Artistic Committee was already twice as large: the new members included Leszek Chołuj and, for the first time, some persons from abroad: Petér Homolka from Slovakia and Manol Todorov from Bulgaria.  The subsequent years saw more names significant for the folklore of Poland and other countries participating in the Festival added to the Committee.

Let us imagine (those participating in the Festivals should recall) such a picture: a field altar next to St Margaret's Basilica, and in front of it - a multi-coloured crowd of several hundred children. Each group has its own place behind a large ensemble name board, which serves as a sort of business card. And they are not exclusively Catholics. Nay, often they are not even Christians. What kind of openness does it take to celebrate a mass of such an ecumenical nature? From the very beginning, the FESTIVAL OF THE CHILDREN OF MOUNTAINS was blessed with uncommon chaplains. The first one was Rev. Prof. Józef Tischner. When the Good Lord decided that it was time to invite the philosopher/highlander over, He entrusted good priest Władysław Zązel from Kamesznica with the Festival, and when in turn he had toiled enough, Rev. Dr Stanisław Kowalik began to preach (or sing, in part) homilies to the Festival community.   

Let us complete the picture of this hand, which confidently and yet with great care holds the Festival pinwheel. From the very beginning, the FESTIVAL OF THE CHILDREN OF MOUNTAINS was a huge organisational undertaking. Roughly half a thousand children from different parts of Poland and from many countries. It is necessary to provide them with some place to sleep, something to eat, some form of transport so that they can move around quickly. They need to know where to get changed, and at least which side to enter the stage from. And they would gladly welcome a bottle of water after the performance. But they are children after all! They also need entertainment, fun, and simply: time for one another, so they can make friends indeed. And let us not forget that for these several Festival days they are staying in the most beautiful Polish province, so it is worth seeing as much as possible. They do not know the area, so they need some guide, and the foreign ensembles need interpreters as well. And coaches with drivers. And each place where they perform needs some hosts. And we must not forget the audience! It needs passes, tickets, brochures... Well, and what about the world? The world needs to know about the most beautiful children's folk festival.

From the very beginning all these needs have involved a large crowd of employees and volunteers, working first for the Province Culture Centre, and then for the SOKÓŁ Małopolska Culture Centre. And all the Festival threads have always converged at the organisation office. And since the Festival has always had a veritable father figure - director Antoni Malczak at its organisational pinnacle, the organising office has been run by loving and caring moms: Marzanna Raińska, Liliana Olech, and for the longest time, albeit intermittently - Małgorzata Kalarus.

You can never repeat this enough: the idea of the International Festival of Children's Folk Ensembles - FESTIVAL OF THE CHILDREN OF MOUNTAINS was conceived in Antoni Malczak’s heart; it developed, changed and grew under his care. And, as it happens with children, the sad year of 2020 came, when this adolescent was to become independent, leaving behind the loving fatherly care. But there followed strange months of the pandemic, and another edition, highly modified and conducted mostly “online” as per the dictate of the new fashion, could not take place until 2021. However, one year later, the new authorities of the SOKÓŁ Małopolska Culture Centre - Diector General Andrzej Zarych, and Festival organisational manager Piotr Gąsienica - joined that hand directing the fate of the colourful pinwheel, which again whirled over Nowy Sącz, somewhat differently, though quite similarly, because it did not break away from that stick, the shaft, the mast - i.e. the Festival rules.

As it turned out in subsequent years, some events took root in the fertile soil of the Festival, while others were rather ephemeral - a kind of experiment that fell on rather rocky ground and bore no fruit. During the first edition, the closing party on Saturday, 1 August 1992, was such a one-off event. A concert by a French ensemble and MAŁE LACHY took place as early as 5:00 pm in the Festival tent, and at 8:30 pm, in the Old Market Square, the party for the Festival guests and Nowy Sącz residents was led by Majka Jeżowska and Rudi Schubert. The next day, at 5:00 pm the first final concert was held.

However, just one year later, Saturday, 31 July 1993, brought a marathon to the Nowy Sącz residents. At 6:00 pm, a Turkish ensemble and MALI SPISZACY performed, and at 7:30 pm the final concert was seen by a very small audience. It was small, because at first the stage inside the Festival tent was not very popular. The situation was different with the stages in the region. Perhaps that is why the ending of the second Festival was held in Poronin. On Sunday morning, the streets of this well-known village in Podhale were trodden by a FESTIVAL OF THE CHILDREN OF MOUNTAINS parade, at 2:00 pm an ecumenical mass was celebrated, two hours later a concert was played, and the evening was crowned with a bonfire, which for years became a fixture in the tradition of the last Festival evening. However, as of 1994 the last Festival Sunday began just like the first one: with a mass at St Margaret's Basilica, and ended with the final concert in the tent, and after a few years in the multi-purpose hall on the Kamienica river.

And just as the colourful parade moved down the town streets every afternoon of the first Sunday of the Festival, so the parade of the successive Festivals proceeded, weaving itself into the history of Nowy Sącz and Małopolska.

The third Festival marked the first time that an ensemble cancelled its arrival at the last minute. It was friends from Ukraine who saved the day. And so the children from the KROKUSY ensemble (the village of Jeleśnia) learnt comrade dances from the RAINBOW ensemble children from Horodok in Podolia. And that is what sometimes has happened. For example, for the 10th anniversary Festival in 2002, two ensembles did not arrive, having informed the organisers at the last minute. And so in place of the ensemble from Moldova again came children from Ukraine - the ensemble DZHERELTSE (from the town of Stryi), and the little Chinese girls from Shanghai were replaced by Polonia ensemble MŁODA KAROLINKA from London. Four years later, another Polonia ensemble - WHITE EAGLE from Canada - was able to participate in the Festival not only as a guest, as originally planned, but as a rightful Festival participant, because an ensemble from Romania did not arrive. Since 2016 the organisers have decided to always invite one extra foreign ensemble. The comrade trio sounds good too, there is less hassle if some ensemble doesn't arrive, and the last national concert is of a duration similar to all the others. Until then, it was short of the previews of the next day’s performances.

The 2016 change goes to illustrate many others that the organisers of the FESTIVAL OF THE CHILDREN OF MOUNTAINS have implemented over the 30 years to make the Festival better and better, more and more friendly to children, because after all they are the most important.

To present all the major and minor milestones, one would have to write a book....

Maybe one more interesting fact, also about 2016. The first two editions were held between the last Sunday of July and the first Sunday of August. As from the third one, the rule has been: the last full week of July. And yet, 2016 came, bringing the World Youth Day in Cracow, and so the 24th FESTIVAL OF THE CHILDREN OF MOUNTAINS had to be held as early as 10-17 July.

They are the busiest, the most eye-catching and colourful. So they symbolise that which is happening on stage, or rather the stages of the FESTIVAL OF THE CHILDREN OF MOUNTAINS. The blades of the pinwheel are children’s ensembles from almost all the continents and all the mountain regions in Poland. It is easy to calculate that more than 350 of them have participated in the Festival over these 30 years.

Then maybe I'll list them:

Nah, just kidding! Again, a book would not be enough to not only list them, but to recount where they came from, what programme they had, what they delighted the Artistic Committee with, and what they delighted the Nowy Sącz audience with...

Just to fulfil the chronicler’s duty, let us list those who took part in the historic 1992 Festival. The first ensemble to perform at the FESTIVAL OF THE CHILDREN OF MOUNTAINS was SĄDECZOKI. It was the host ensemble in comrade pair with a Slovakian ensemble named BEZÁČIK. They came from Bratislava, which was not yet the capital of Slovakia. Officially, Slovakia was formed six months later. The second Polish ensemble was ORAWIANIE from Lipnica Murowana, and since the Festival rules allow one band from a non-mountainous region, their comrade was Polonia ensemble KAROLINKA from Brest. After the Belarusian day came the Italian day, and MALI ŚWARNI from Nowy Targ did not leave their new friends from I PICCOLI (Minturno) alone even for a second. In August 1992 it was just over a year since the formation of Slovenia. The echoes of the Ten-Day War had already died away, although unfortunately, there was bloodshed in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which was to continue for three more years. From the Slovenian town of Kranj came JAKOB ALJAŽ and for a week they forged ties of comradeship with JAWORZYNA from the village of Miedzybrodzie Żywieckie.  History teaches that the well-known saying about “Magyar and Pole, two friends so fine; together they fight and drink their wine” has some deep grounding in the equally deep history of our two nations. It is good, therefore, that the first Festival of Children's Friendship also featured the ŐRDŐGSZŐVŐ ensemble from Sárospatak in Hungary, and the children of the North Hungarian Highlands and the Zemplén Mountains were offered an opportunity, like their grandfathers and great-grandfathers in the past, to become friends with Poles - this time with BUKOWE GRONICZKI from the village of Brenna. The picture of the first comradeship in the history of the Festival of the Children of Mountains was made complete with the Polish-French friendship between MAŁE LACHY from Nowy Sącz and LES DRÔLES DE SAINTONGE from the town of Saintes.

When the pinwheel is spinning, it invisibly changes the air currents. Likewise, the International Festival of Children's Folk Ensembles - FESTIVAL OF THE CHILDREN OF MOUNTAINS has sent some ripples through the cultural reality. It is said that thanks to this Festival a Polish school of children's folklore has been established. The educational department of this school has taken the form of 21 editions of the All-Poland Instructors Workshop, where instructors have been given an opportunity to learn children's folklore with the aid of live, or - one might say - lively “material” dancing, singing and playing on the Festival stage, during the Artistic Committee's sessions with the ensemble leaders, and through a multitude of lectures, workshops, field trips. Aware of the Festival’s objectives, the participants in the Workshops would often return to subsequent editions, bringing their own ensembles and excellent performances. However, it is not only the Workshops! As late as 2005, the Artistic Committee masters would grumble about the use of accordions in the musical bands (e.g. Aleksandra Szurmiak-Bogucka), or about the fact that historically children were unlikely to play in clearings or mountain pastures, wearing festive dress (e.g. Benedict Kafel). The result of these remarks? Nowadays, young children perform on stage, wearing traditionally coarse tunics called “jadwisie,” and a whole host of young musicians play traditional button accordions which they have found in attics, or simply had specially made, because - lo and behold! - there is a demand for traditional button accordions.

The FESTIVAL OF THE CHILDREN OF MOUNTAINS has changed and continues changing the folklore reality. This is beyond question. However, what is the dimension of these changes? That should be left to researchers, in the hope that there will be enthusiasts ready to describe the legacy of the world's most beautiful children's festival. In the meantime, we will be looking at the participants of the 30th anniversary FESTIVAL OF THE CHILDREN OF MOUNTAINS. Slightly shorter, because it lasts only from Sunday to Saturday, and therefore there will be only eleven ensembles (four comrade pairs and one comrade trio), since 2021 in a new venue, i.e. the Riflemen’s Park Amphitheatre. But the foreign ensembles are coming from all over the world!

May the colourful blades of the Festival pinwheel go on changing reality. Especially in this most important manner: when “children's friendship builds peace of the adults’ world.”