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Czech song festival "Krajanské zpěvánky"
The 4 th festival of Czech singing groups and choirs from Croatia "Krajanské Zpěvánky" was held on Saturday, October 15, 2005, in Rijeka. Czech Union in Croatia and Czech Beseda Rijeka organized the event, sponsored by the president of the Croatian National Minorities Council Mr. Aleksandar Tolnauer and by the City of Rijeka and Primorsko-goranska County. Sixteen Czech and one guest Croatian choir, totaling 363 performers, participated in the event.
We were thrilled by the presence of Mr. Aleksandar Tolnauer with his wife, Czech and Slovak minority representative in Croatian Parliament Ms. Zdenka Čuhnjil, our friends from Řimov, Czech Republic, representatives of the Rijeka city council and other minorities active in Rijeka.
The participants of this festival were singing groups and choirs from: Bjelovar, Daruvarski Brestov, Daruvar, Gornji Daruvar, Jazvenik, Končanica, Lipovac, Prekopakra, Sisak, Slavonski Brod, Treglava, Virovitica, Zagreb, and Veliki and Mali Zdenci; Croatian choir from Omišalj, and singing group "Nostalgia" of the event hosts.
A round table for representatives of national minorities living in the Primorsko-goranska county and representatives of the Croatian National Minorities Council was held in the morning on the day of the festival. President of the Croatian National Minorities Council Mr. Aleksandar Tolnauer, Council member and representative in Croatian Parliament Zdenka Čuhnjil, and representatives of the Hungarian, Serbian, Montenegrian, Roma, Albanian, and Czech minorities attended the round table. They spoke about the significance of Constitution law of national minorities, the possibilities this law gives to national minorities, its practical application and its future. The meeting was presided by the representative of the Czech minority in the County minority council, Mr. Anton Rehak.
All festival participants and guests met in the unfinished building of the Czech Culture Centre in Rijeka, where they were welcomed by the president of the Czech Beseda Rijeka Mrs. Fanyka Husak and other members of Czech Beseda Rijeka. The guests had some refreshments and inspected the building, expressing their astonishment by the size of the building and of the amount of work already completed. It was a moving gathering of old friends, ex classmates and distant relatives, some of who met here for the first time in many years.
The festival evening started at 6 PM in the Croatian Culture Home on Sušak, borrowed from the City of Rijeka free of charge for this event. Singing group of Czech Beseda Rijeka was the first to perform, traditionally starting the event with the song "Beautiful Czech, my Czech." After that, Mr. Tolnauer spoke about the work of the National Minorities Council and the extent and manner in which the Council can support activities of minorities. Mr. Tolnauer expressed his satisfaction with the work of Czech minority in Croatia and its Parliament representative. Then he officially opened the festival.
Singing group performances, averaging 6 minutes in length, followed. It was a touching celebration of the Czech song, kept alive by the members of Czech minority. The occasion was enhanced by the high quality performance of Omišalj choir. The performers were able to listen to performances of other choirs, judge their advance in singing and stage performance. In the end, all choirs sang together the immortal "anthem" of Czech singers in Croatia, "This our little Czech song."
We estimate that the program and organization of the festival was very well prepared. The announcers Lenka Lalić and Ivica Nikolac contributed to the success of the festival and the flow of songs and groups on stage.
After the program, all performers and their guests met over dinner in Home on Zamet, where they relaxed by tasty dinner and lots of first-class sweets prepared by members of Czech Beseda Rijeka. Czech song sounded long in the night, but many Croatian songs were also sung with our friends and excellent singers from Omišalj.
Although the organization of all choirs and preparation of dinner was a very demanding task for the small number of Czech Beseda Rijeka members, everyone was pleased in the end, and our guests had a hard time parting with us and starting their night journey to their home towns. We will remember this festival for a long time and gather our strength for our future activities from this encounter with our friends, the beauty of the Czech song, and the feelings of understanding and friendship.
