The Čadca highlanders are a mountain people who used to inhabit areas located in the Cieszyn Silesia, Żywiec and Trans-Olza districts. They were compelled by difficult economic conditions to emigrate through Ukraine to the Romanian region of Bukovina. The villages in which they settled there included Solonețu Nou (Nowy Sołoniec), Pleșa and Poiana Micului. It is no wonder then that the folklore of the Čadca Highlanders (mainly with regard to their outfits and dances), who have for many years lived close to Romanian, Ukrainian and German villages, constitutes a melting pot of various nationalities. The ancient native tradition has been preserved in a relatively most pure form, in the local idiom, songs and rites, for which great services have been rendered by Polish organizations operating in Bukovina, e.g. the Society of School Motherland, the Society of the Polish Youth and the Folk School Society. After World War II some of the highlanders returned to Poland, settling in the country’s western parts (Lower Silesia, the Lubusz and Opole districts). The Nowy Sołoniec Valley Ensemble of the Čadca Highlanders was established in 1984 in Złotniki near Żary, where the Čadca Highlanders make up three fourths of all the village inhabitants. Till this day they have preserved the identity of their language, dress, customs and traditions. The ensemble was established to protect and popularize their own culture through the agency of dance, song, as well as stage performances of customs and rites. In 1988 a children’s group was started so that the highlanders could pass down to the younger generation all that they themselves had learnt from their parents, and which they so badly wanted to save from oblivion. The children’s group has many times performed in the Zielona Góra province, and every year it participates in the International Bukovina Meetings in Jastrowie. It has performed in Żywiec as a vocal group, and as a participant in the “Master and pupil” contest. At the Festival of the Children of Mountains the ensemble will present a programme entitled “Zabawy na tłoce,” i.e. games, dances and songs with which children while away long hours spent by the bonfire while grazing sheep, cows and geese.