We were informed that there was a restriction as to how many groups could participate, and following a period of waiting and uncertainty, considered ourselves lucky to be accepted. This time there were 34 groups representing 11 countries. So, with only 5 months to prepare, we worked very hard to make sure our performances were the best they could be. We had both Friday and Sunday rehearsals for many months and before we knew it, the time came to fly to Poland. Many of our dancers left earlier in June to visit families in Poland.

In the last few weeks, we were contacted by the Artistic Director of the festival, Mr Janusz Chojecki, asking where our Mazur "Straszny Dwor" was? We were not planning on taking this dance but we accepted the invitation to show our dance along with other groups at the same time due to the fact that this year was the special year of the Polish composer Stanislaw Moniuszko and the main Festival concerts were being dedicated to his memory. The only catch was that we had to wear our Australian costume which was a surprise to us. But of course you do what the Artistic Director requests. So, because our Artistic Director, Urszula Lang already left for Poland, it was up to us dancers to prepare the dance.It turned out that we were not the only group who was not wearing the traditional Mazur costume. It was an honour and greatly satisfying to perform this challenging dance and we were rewarded with being in front of the main video cameras.

There were 3 of us in the final group to head off to Poland and after a few delays and issues in Sydney airport, we arrived in Warsaw. We had a special Festival bus that was organised to take us to Rzeszow. We arrived there safely and the rest of the group greeted us happily. Then it was time to find our rooms and settle in. Thankfully there was a lift to take us to the third floor. We had so many heavy bags!!! First things first - Aussie flags, the Boxing Kangaroo and a Lajkonik banner were attached to the windows to show everyone that the Aussies had arrived.

On the first day, we had a bit of a look around town. A few of us opted to go for a walk to one of the shopping centres to sort out our Polish sim cards and pick up some supplies for the rooms. In the afternoon, we caught a bus into town and discovered one of the stages where we will have our first performance. Since Australia is so far away from Poland, Lajkonik takes up the opportunity to learn new choreographies from the experts whenever we can.

So, it was organised that before the festival started we would have a workshop to learn Spiskie dances with a lovely lady called Pani Maria Wnek. We first started with a singing session to learn the songs with the dancing to follow the next day. The songs were quite catchy and so throughout the festival and afterwards, many of our dancers were still singing the songs. We managed to learn the dance in one day which was a lot of fun. We thank Pani Maria for the work that she did and for teaching it to us. We can’t wait to teach it to the rest of our group and of course perform it one day – soon!

The following day was an all-day rehearsal with our beloved associated choreographer, Mr Jasiu Pogonowski. He kindly drove from Lublin, a few hours away to spend the day with us and improve our dances. It had been many years since he came to Australia to teach us these dances and we were delighted to see him again. He also loaned us Zywiec Goralski costumes from his Ensemble Jawor in Lublin, so that we could dance in the correct costume for the Region. Unfortunately, we did not manage to raise sufficient funds for these costumes prior to Rzeszow, but hope to do so in future. We were indeed VERY GRATEFUL for the kindness shown to us and trust in loaning these costumes.

At the same time other groups started to arrive and so the festival was underway. All the groups were divided into groups - we were in group 6. We were not required to be at all rehearsals and so we were happy to have more time to practice and prepare a sequence for the parade. The afternoon was free to do what we liked, whether it be shopping or resting.

The parade through the town was on Friday, and was followed by the official opening. The starting position of the groups was organised by country and then by alphabetical order of the group names. So we were lucky to be first and we led the parade! We happily walked through the town shouting Aussie, Aussie, Aussie – Oj, Oj, Oj, and also dancing to some Australian tunes when there was a break. We were waving Australian flags and giving away stuffed koalas and kangaroos to the crowd. After the official opening we had a big group photo with the other two Lajkonik groups from the USA. We hope to see them in Australia soon for a big Lajkonik Festival, possibly as part of our 30-year Anniversary celebrations in 2020.

On Saturday we had our first performance in the town square. We had a general rehearsal in the morning. Some of our members had fallen ill and some were injured resulting in some rearrangement of positions in our dances. We called upon our younger members to learn and perform the finale as well as positions in our dances. They had to learn the finale in the morning and perform it in the afternoon. Well done to Adam Sypka and his brother Jullian who stepped up. We were grateful to have them with us. We danced Goralskie, Warszawskie and our Australian dance which the audience loved.

Haczów. Lajkonik z Kapel± Trze¶niowskie Wesele

After the performance we decided to come back out into the town to celebrate one of our dancer’s birthday [Marzena]. We had a late but lovely group dinner.

The next day, after attending a wonderful celebration mass in the Rzeszow Cathedral, we travelled to a nearby town Haczow for another performance. This was called a terrain concert because it involved integration with locals. The local group “Trzesniowianie” started off the performance with some songs and dances which they perform at weddings. We danced our Sacz, Lubelskie and our Australian. After the performance we were treated to dinner and drinks and many hours of happy singing. We thank them for their kind hospitality and warmth. We left with lots of hugs and kisses and promises to keep in contact. A few days later, their teacher travelled to Rzeszow especially to find us so that he could present us with copies of all their music, just in case we could use it. He said that the local youth do not support the folk culture, and openly avoid it. This was very sad to hear, because we love and appreciate it so much!

The next day we were back into rehearsals for the concert Narodow Swiata where most groups performed a dance from their country. Of cours, we performed our Australian dance. Once again, our younger dancers were asked to step in for our injured dancers. The dance went very well, as part of this very popular concert in the main Sports Centre of Rzeszow. Once again there was a rehearsal in the morning but we had free time in the afternoon the next day. We opted for a tour of the beautiful and historic 16th Century Lancut Palace, just outside of Rzeszow.

Our last Rzeszow festival performance was at the Gala where we performed a shortened version of our Zywiec Goralskie. We had a few versions of this dance so that we were sometimes confused as to which version we were doing for a certain venue. However, we managed twithout too much difficulty. At the end of the Gala, we danced the Moniuszko Mazur - Straszny Dwor. We love this dance and enjoyed the fast music whilst performing it concurrently with 5 other Ensembles, each with their own choreography. We eventually returned to our accommodation where we got ready for the final party. All our dancers went out to socialise with other groups at the two party spots, either in the “gazebo” or at the Klub Minus which was a marquis with a bar and DJ. Many spent hours dancing the night away and celebrating our success.

The Rzeszow Festival was now over, but our performances were not finished. We travelled by Festival bus to Zywiec where we participated in the Tydzien Kultury Beskidskiej Festival, one of the biggest Festivals in Poland. One of the local groups Pilsko hosted us for dinner and they surprised us with a performance. On the Friday we had a workshop to learn some Podhalanski steps. In the evening we went to the opening concert of the Festival. Saturday morning was spent re-arranging our dances again due to more illnesses and injuries, and a tour of the Zywiec Brewery for those who still had enough energy!. Our performance was not until 5pm and we were honoured to start the concert with our Zywiec Goralski suite of dances. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity to dance with real Gorale, and so we were grateful that all three dances went well. Special thanks goes to our mascot Julia Kwas who proudly carried out our Australian flag before each dance.

The dancing was now finished and on the Sunday we attended mass at the lovely Zywiec Cathedral and in the evening we travelled to Warsaw. We were delayed by 3 hours due to bus problems but we eventually arrived at about 12:30 am. We had a mix up with the hotel but eventually at about 2am it was all sorted and time for bed. Monday was a free day and we had a farewell dinner in the evening in a restaurant called Gosciniec. On the Tuesday we travelled to where Mazowsze lives, rehearses and performs. We were very lucky to have a workshop with their ballet teacher, Pan Marcin, as well as a tour of the place and delicious lunch in the Karczma. We received some good tips with our dancing technique and it was a great way to end a successful trip to Poland. On the way back we were caught in a sudden deluge of rain, but it did not last long. Nothing could rain on OUR PARADE!

None of this would have been possible without the dedication and passion of our Artistic Director, Urszula Lang who spent hours teaching us and improving our dances. Also, a lot of work went on behind the scenes attending numerous organisational meetings in Rzeszow, trying to get rehearsal space, looking after finances etc. Lajkonik is grateful to have our teacher and we thank her for all the hard work over the last 5 months to get us to the festival. We really could not have done it without her. Overall, it was a great and successful trip and we can only hope to go back in 3 years’ time.

Joanne Fisher
Lajkonik

Julia Pawlowska
“The Rzeszów trip was an overall amazing experience however if I had to pick my favourite moment, it would definitely be performing for the community in Haczów. The sharing of how Australian Polaks stay connected with Poland and seeing the community's reactions was a truely heartwarming experience. Honestly a once in a lifetime opportunity and I'm so glad I was a part of it with such and amazing group.”

Adam Taras
“My highlight of our Lajkonik Polish trip was taking part in the 100 pair Mazur in a year that lined up with the 50th anniversary of the festival, 100 years since regaining independence and 200 years since the birth of Moniuszko. It reminded me of how our passion keeps Polish culture alive.”

Kayla Pilichowska
“Looking back on those 2-3 weeks of dancing is surreal. I pinch myself that it all happened but I think the moment I will hold close to my heart is holding the Australian flag with fellow dancer Adam Brulinski as we sung a teary polish anthem in front of thousands and closed the event that had been months in a making.”

Emilia Wojtowicz
“The best part for me was Lajkonik leading the parade through the streets of Rzeszow. We danced to ‘Waltzing Matilda’ and gave out little koalas in true Aussie spirit as we made our way to the rynek.”

Pani Ula[/i]
“For me, the best thing was to see the pride and satisfaction of the dancers after each performance, each one being successful. A real highlight was getting the Zywiec Heart and Participation Diploma in Zywiec because this is such a significant Polish festival. To dance there with the real gorale was a dream come true, and because its where my mother’s family comes from. Many family members were in the audience! My love of Polish folk dance was passed down to me from my mum.”

[b]Damian Wysocki
“My best highlights were observing the various polish folk performances from other countries, appearing on Polish television as a folk dancer and the amusing, bright Polish individuals that I’ve came across and meet.”

Adam Maksymilian Brulinski
“The best aspect of our trip was being able to experience the culture that we work so hard to maintain, a culture that is so distant to us but still very much in our hearts and minds. Everywhere we went people loved that we lived so far away but we still strive to maintain our traditions, language, history, songs and dances - seeing that so many groups from around the world share our passion is a great inspiration to continue.”

Guest travelling with us – Matt Malacha
“Being the group’s adopted honorary Canadian was both a pleasure and an honour, and getting to dance and sing along with the group across three parts of Poland.”

Joanne Fisher
“The best part of our trip to Rzeszow was dancing our goralskie in Zywiec. It was such an honour to open the concert and dance with everything we had.”

Adam Maksymilian Kortynski
“My highlight was being able to dance Polish folk dances in Poland, an opportunity that doesn’t come very often. Also being able to be on live Polish TV representing my dance group and Polonia was another big moment.”

Pawel Nowak
“Apart from the dancing and the Festival itself, it was great to make new friends and to rekindle old relationships from years ago, from both Australia and across the globe. Rzeszow Festival allows Polonia to come together”.