The performances will take place on outdoor podiums on Old Town Square, Wenceslas Square and Republiky Square in Celnice. The event will reach a climax on Saturday when all the ensembles will march through Old Town. The first group will set off at 3 pm from Old Town Square, making its way through Celetna Street, Ovocný trh, Havířska, Na Příkopě, Na Můstku, Rytířska, and Železna Streets and then back to Old Town Square. The event is free of charge, and it will feature about 1300 singers, musicians and dancers.
Yodelling and kazachoc
Visitors will be able to gyrate their tonsils yodelling along with Austrian musicians and enjoy listening to Estonian, Russian, Catalonian or Cyprian folklore songs. The Russian ensemble Vecherinka will perform the stirring songs of the Don Cossacks.
Exotic Instruments
Musician will introduce many instruments that are exotic for locals. The folklore ensemble Elordi from Navara will bring the three-hole flute called Txistu, while the Russian ensemble Poljushko will play on a magnificent hornpipe called Zalejka. Norwegian musicians have mastered the hardanger fiddle. Other than that, visitors can look forward to Croatian string instrument Tambura, and several types of balalaikas that will be brought by Russian musicians. The music and dance ensemble from Central Asia Jagalmay boasts traditional music instruments such as the five-string lute-like musical instrument Rubab or ancient fretless string instrument Komuz. The most well endowed instrument for size is surely the sonorously deep throated alpine horn called Alphorn, which is still to be heard played by herdsmen and echoes around the Alps to this very day.
Dance is fundamental
The festival unleashes on Prague a vividly colourful variety of dances and it is dance that will play the fundamental role. The ensemble from the UK will present the ancient form of Morris Dancing, a folklore dance accompanied by music with implements from various items such as sticks, swords, pipes and a profuse waving of handkerchiefs. Traditional Austrian Schuhplattler is performed usually in 3/4 time, dancers carry out a series of jumps and hip movements to the time of the music. Characteristically the dancers will rhythmically strike their thighs, knees and soles of the feet, and stamp with the feet. A record number of participants will make it from Northern Europe. The Swedish ensemble Mora will present traditional dances Snoa and Hambo, and the young ensemble Fyyrkantti Mylläkkä will surely enchant the audience by Finish dances that date as far back as to the Middle Ages and maybe long before that. Guests from Catalonia will surely capture the audience interest by their dance Ball de Bastons based on traditional agricultural life and simulates daily activities on farms and estates. Young men from the ensemble Granicari will showcase their great skills when dancing with pitchforks, knifes and even balancing bottles on their heads. The English ensemble will perform a Mummers' Play, a pantomime about death and rebirth.
Lusatia Sorbs will make it too
Prague audiences will have a unique opportunity to admire richly decorated folk costumes that people used to wear on various occasions: folk costumes for markets, for Sundays, folk costumes for the rich, wedding outfits, dresses for ploughmen, laundry maids, shepherds etc. The Ensemble of Lusatia Sorbs,>Sorbische Volkstanzgruppe Zeißig, will dance wearing the costume of protestant Sorbs that some older females still wear with great pride. Members of the Czech ensemble Národopisný spolek Komařice will sing and dance wearing the typical costume from Doudleby. Last but by no means least the event will feature samples and demonstrations of folk crafts providing a window of insight into the innate artistry of the many individual countries and regions represented.
National minorities
Praguers can also look forward to performances of by several minority and ethnic groups (Central Asian artists working in Prague, Croatian living in Austria, Saxons from Transylvania, Banat Schwabs, Lusatia Sorbs from Germany, Russians from Estonia). For the first time the event will welcome artists from Israel and Turkey.
The programme is available at http://www.praguefestival.cz/folkloreprogramcz.htm.
