This year, the visit to Dallas was different in a lot of ways.  For the first time, I took a good look at the reasons for visiting this particular festival.  When I was growing up, we went to the NPF to visit with family and friends.  As any good Czech, Catholic family would be, my extended family was (is) huge.  I can remember many cousins, god-parents, grand-parents, aunts and uncles, all visiting and enjoying the atmosphere that felt so familiar complete with the food, beer, music, and dancing.  As time has gone by, many of the cousins have moved on.  Some of my grand-parents have passed away and some of them don’t care to come anymore.  My mother, the 100% Czech part of the family, has passed on and my God-mother, who was always the anchor of the dancing part of my family had a stroke a few years back and is in a home, not doing well, from what I’ve been told.

This year, the festival was fun, as it always is.  However, that is the interesting thing, this year, Scott and I realized that the NPF is always the same.  We always arrive the same day, go to the same venues, see the same art vendors downtown and the same bands in the halls.  The parade never changes and the menu at the dance-halls, although contains some authentic Czech fare, has not changed in at least 10 years.  Seriously, the menu consists of Barbeque Beef & Klobase, Parsley Potatoes, Green Beans (not sure what is Czech about that), Sauerkraut (German?), and Czech Pastries (Kolaches).  If you stay until Sunday, you get Pork Roast and Dumplings (Knedliky).  The tunes played are now 50% Czech and 50% Country and Western.  The one new thing the festival did this year was bring in a magician, yes, that is right, a magician, to entertain.  I think it was this last development that actually sealed our decision (see below).  Although we had a good time, we will not be attending the NPF for several years to come.  Perhaps absence will make the heart grow fonder.

Don’t get me wrong here, I am actually impressed and pleased that the folks in Ennis can still keep a folk festival alive in today’s culture and society.  I know it is insanely difficult to reach the younger generation and I applaud them for trying to do things each year that will draw the younger crowd.  See this post for more information on how the NPF folks could better reach the younger crowd.  The beef I have with the management of this festival is that the young are being reached at the expense of the purity of the culture.  My question is this: WHAT IS CZECH ABOUT A MAGICIAN??

My reasons for taking my money and time elsewhere are not only due to the festival changing, but due to out growing this festival and a desire to see how other Czechs hold their festivals in other parts of this country and beyond.  Therefore, next year we will be heading for the Wilber Czech Festival in Wilber, Nebraska.  In an effort to start a new tradition with the younger folks in our family and to try to carry on the Czech heritage, we have asked our kids and grand-kids to join us in Wilber, as well as my parents.  All have agreed to wear costumes for the event.  I will be making those and posting progress photos throughout the next year on this blog.  It is nice to be excited again about attending a Czech festival.  I am sure the festival in Wilber has many of the same issues, namely, familiarity to those who attend every year, but it will be new to us and we are looking forward to it.

Finally, I leave you with photos from this year’s festival.  I do have a video of Scott and I dancing, but am working out a deal for cash to keep it from being posted.  HaHa!  As I said, we did have a good time, but also a reflective one.  Enjoy ~ až později

The trip to the festival:

The King and Queen Competition:

Czech Musicians (one of these is my cousin:

Random photos of fun:

This year I decided to spruce up and adjust some of the current costume components.  Starting with my red skirt that I made for the festival two years ago.  This skirt had four huge bias panels in it and was ridiculously heavy to wear.  After about 2 hours work, one of the panels is now removed and it is much lighter.  When I made it I was unsure if there would be enough “swing” and so I put in the four panels.  After wearing it at the 2009 festival, I realized that three would have still provided plenty of swing without weighing me down quite as much as I moved.  So, the adjustment has been made.  I’ll be adding a little bling here and there to the red and the purple costumes, ironing, and fluffing, etc.  Then we pack them up and head out for the Memorial Day Weekend festivities in Ennis, TX.  If you actually read this blog and are anywhere in the area (and are not a stalker) come to the festival and see if you can find us.  Sort of a modern day “where’s Waldo”…

Quote of the week: “This is Serious!!” Harrison Ford, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

Ebby and me at the Mississippi border.

Closeup of the Chihuahua with an attitude!

Ebby and me at the Louisiana Border

Ebby and me at the Texas border.

The trip back was another story.  There were three of us, Me, Scott, and our three year old grandson William in the front cab of our little truck for the 14 hour trip back home.  Ebby lived in my lap the entire ride back.  All is well though.  We made it home without incident, unless you count the first hour in the truck when William turned to me and basically lost all his orange juice he had taken in before we left.  It was a mess, but we survived.

This year my dad and I competed in the King and Queen Dance again.  There were 21 couples competing this year and we didn’t even make it past the first cut.  We had fun though and the couple who won were far superior dancers and will represent the festival well in the year to come.

Pardon the No Smoking sign, the moment was right so the photo was taken.

It is so wonderful for a daughter to be able to dance with her father!

Are we having fun yet? or Will this song ever end?

My Daddy and Me!

All the contestants are positioned around the dance floor.

Here is the video of our 2009, meager attempt at stardom…

On Saturday, we went to the parade as usual, but the parade was a huge disappointment this year.  Not only did it start about an hour late because of an inadvertently parked train across the intersection, but there were bands included in the floats that had absolutely NOTHING with Czech heritage, except perhaps that the members were residents of the greater Ennis area.  These bands were beyond metal in flavor and there was not a polka to be found.  Sad, really.  If Ennis wants to do something to promote the Polka Festival in the future they might want to try updating the website and begin thinking “nationally” again.  They are, after all, the National Polka Festival.  Ok, rant is over…  The best part of the parade for me was seeing Ebby all decked out in her costume.  She is truly a Czech/Mex dog!  Ha Ha

This is why the parade is late!!

Am I handsome or what?

Nana, William, Bryan (my son), Sara (his wife), and Ebby waiting for the parade

We will not be attending this festival next year (or probably for a few years to come), mainly because we want to go visit some other festivals in other parts of the country.  Now that I have my supply of costumes, we can dance in style throughout Wisconsin, Nebraska, Minnesota, and Ohio, to name a few.  Stay tuned here for updates on our adventures to a polka festival near you.

Here is the vest that I asked you all to help me with choosing the trim colors and configuration.  I went with option #2 and then spiced up the configuration to give the vest a “look at me” quality, an essential quality when involved in a dance contest.  Let me know what you think…good or bad, constructive critisim is always welcome!

Front of Dad's Vest

Back of Dad's Vest

So, who are you voting for?  Not in the political arena, the ballroom one.  There are still too many couples in it at the moment for me to decide, but, who knew Warren Sapp could dance?

Wow!

On a sad note, I was really looking forward to seeing more of Misty May Treanor, and it is just not to be.  She tore her achilles tendon in a practice and is going in for surgery tomorrow.  Bummer!

So, who are you voting for?

The Parade

William especially liked the parade. He said “Hi” to everyone who passed by and even caught the eye of a fireman who stopped to visit with him.

The Food

Scott and his future daughter-in-law, Sara, can really put away the food! They spent most of the time at the festival eating. Here is a sample of what they consumed from the street vendors.

Saturday afternoon the kids left to head back to Colorado. Dad took the rest of us out to dinner at Bubba’s as a belated birthday present for me. This was an interesting place, to say the least. They have a “convenience store” type refrigerator as you walk in filled with steaks. If steak is what you came for, you literally pick out your raw steak (wrapped in plastic wrap) and take it to your table where your wait-person will take it from you and bring it back, with sides, cooked to your specifications. Yum, Yum!! The steaks were great!!!

The Dancing

The evening was topped off by dancing to the music provided by several very good bands. One of the bands that Scott likes a lot is the Academy Award winning band Polka Freak Out. They play everything from Bach to Tex-Mex to traditional Czech polkas. The accordion/trumpet player, Alex Meixner, is a 4th generation musician and is truly one of a kind. Every time I watch him play I think he is going to have a heart attack because he jumps around so much. Way more energy than I will ever have!

The Oklahoma Czech Dancers were at the festival again this year and they preformed beautifully. We always look forward to seeing them.

Family Photos

Family photos were at the top of the agenda for day one. We took the kids downtown to take some photos of them in “costume”.

We managed to get a 5 generation photo at the hall that evening. These photos are quite rare and we actually have been lucky enough to get three different ones so far in this family. The family members are listed from left to right and there relationship to William is noted: William Fillmer, Bryan Fillmer (Dad), Deborah Fillmer (Grandmother), Grace Dubuque (Great-great Grandmother), David Platt (Great Grandfather).

We Are Famous

Wow, I couldn’t believe it when a reporter from the Ennis Journal called our house in Alabama and conducted a 30 minute phone interview with me about the costumes and the upcoming contest. The article she wrote was very in depth and I was tickled when some of my family members came up to me at the festival and said “hey, we saw you made the paper”. Too cool! You can read the article online through the newspaper link above or here.

Contest Photos

Last, but not least, here are some photos of the contest that evening. We were a little disappointed that we didn’t win, but there were 20 couples to start with, so we were not sure of our chances right then. Apparently the number 5 is not a lucky one for us. Any suggestions for a number choice next year? Enjoy the photos and leave me a comment if you can.

There will be no knitting content this week. Instead, I will be updating this blog with several posts throughout the week about the festivities throughout the 2008 Memorial Day weekend. If you are interested in Polka music, Czech culture, or Costume design, you may be interested in these posts.

The weekend went by way too fast. We all had such a good time and, personally, I wish the fun could have continued for several weeks, months, or years. We are researching the possibility of going on the Polka Cruise, or even attending one of the other “national” festivals, like the one in Wilber, NE in the near future.

The Contest

Dad and I entered the contest and, although we did not win, we made it through the second round and had a blast! We have already made plans to try again next year. The new costumes are already in my head and you can watch their development this year on this blog. My father and I are the couple in the purple costumes, in case you didn’t know. Many thanks to my aunt Twina for taking the video. I hope you enjoy it.

National Polka Festival 2008 – King and Queen Contest