We are back!

This epigram by master poet Jan Kochanowski treats of an important, or - as some would say - the most important aspect of our lives. Whenever I read this little work I always feel like substituting some other word for ‘health.’ And I would not be the first one. It was Adam Mickiewicz who in this way began his greatest (at least in terms of the size) work.


We can substitute other things: work, comfort, time, peace and quiet... thou art like health... You never know what you’ve got till it’s gone. And so following this line of thought I want to cry out:


Well, we lost the Festival once already. We just did not have enough money. And as Antoni Malczak, the originator of the Festival, recalls, the Nowy Sącz inhabitants really missed the Festival. Wondering why there were no ensembles parading down the town streets, and why there was no stage in the old market square, they came to appreciate the event that imparted a totally unique atmosphere to the last days of July on the Dunajec and Kamienica rivers.

Last year, money probably would not have been any problem, because even the state authorities - represented by the Minister of Culture, National Heritage and Sport - understand the importance of the Festival of the Children of Mountains. Therefore, the Festival was to take place, though not any more under the nearly parental eye of Antoni Malczak and Małgorzata Kalarus.

What was the problem then? Well, we all know, don't we?

And again we missed the colourful parade, the inaugural concert in the old market square, the poorly-ventilated multi-purpose hall - which admittedly for the concerts is equipped with a better and better sound amplification system; but above all we missed the atmosphere of comradeship, where the language barriers disappear like clouds dispelled by the wind of music, dance, and, last but not least, spending the time together throughout the eight Festival days.

Yearning is good, but not for too long! Yearning lets you appreciate that which is longed for, and with greater relish savour it when it is back again. And so we are happy to be back in Nowy Sącz in July 2021.

Not everything is the way it used to.

Arguably, the new place - the Amphitheatre in the Riflemen’s Park - will effectively stifle the longing for the multi-purpose hall in Nadbrzeżna Street, but the sentiment - just like the memory of the big tent used in the first editions of the Festival - will remain.

The foreign ensembles will perform “online” (the word which has recently aroused considerable and ambivalent emotion). And so we can continue yearning, and in the yearning we will be able to appreciate an ordinary face-to-face with a friend from a different part of the world. The most significant idea of the Festival - “children's friendship builds peace of the adults’ world” - will be realized thanks to the comrade couples formed by ensembles from the Polish mountains and other parts of our country.

Let us enjoy what we have! Let us yearn for that which we do not have as yet, believing that this different, hybrid Festival of the Children of Mountains is another step towards normalcy.