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Czech song festival Krajanské Zpěvánky
The 6th Krajanské zpěvánky, festival of Czech choirs from Croatia, were a part of this year's Ethno-review in Rijeka. The festival took place on September 22 at 5 PM in the new Czech Culture Home in Rijeka.
Apart from the singers, their conductors, presidents of Czech Besedas from all over Croatia and representatives of the press, many distinguished and dear guests cam to the festival: Zdenka Čuhnil – representative of Czech and Slovak minorities in Croatian Parliament and a member of National Minorities Council, Leonora Janota – president of the Czech Union in Croatia, Vojko Obersnel – mayor of Rijeka, Zvonko Cegledi – mayor of Daruvar, Vladimir Koupal – mayor of Řimov district in the Czech Republic with his wife and members of District Office in Řimov, Dalibor Rohlik – deputy mayor of Daruvar, leaders of EU project from four countries (Czech Republic, Slovakia, Serbia and Crotia) in which Croatia was represented by Riječke Ribice, representatives of Primorsko-goranska County and the City of Rijeka, representatives of other national minorities living in Rijeka, and many citizens of Rijeka who support the cultural activity of the Czech Beseda Rijeka.
The festival participants arrived in Rijeka on the day of the festival in eight busses. First they went to lunch for all participants, organized and financed by parliament representative Zdenka Čuhnil. It was a chance for Mrs. Čuhnil to meet many members of the Czech minority which she represents in Croatian Parliament, but also a great opportunity to start her campaign for her reelection for representative of Czech and Slovak minorities. She welcomed all participants, wished them a successful performance at the festival, and advised them to vote in the upcoming election, according to their conscience and feeling of belonging to Czech minority.
The festival featured 19 Czech choirs from Croatia with more than 350 singers and a few dozen musicians accompanying them. Singers from the following towns participated in the festival: Bjelovar, Lipovljani, Doljani, Prekopakra, Virovitica, Lipovac, Končanica, Daruvarski Brestovac, Gornji Daruvar, Slavonski Brod, Kaptol, Jazvenik, Sisak, Zagreb, Veliki and Mali Zdenci, Daruvar, and Rijeka.
Group Nostalgia of the Czech Beseda Rijeka opened the program with their interpretation of the song "Čechy krásné, Čechy mé." Later in the program, numerous audience and singers heard about 50 Czech songs – folk, rearranged or popular songs, two mixes of well-known traditional Czech folk songs and several Croatian songs. The final performance was especially emotional: all participants, but also the audience, sang the unofficial anthem of the Czech people living in Croatia, the song "Písnička česká" by Hašler. Accompanied by maestro Jaromir Klubičko, Lela Vezmar from Daruvar sang the solo parts.
Irreplaceable duo lead us through the program: Lenka Lalić, editor of Czech program on Radio Daruvar, and Ivica Nikolac, editor of the City of Rijeka web portal. The program was directed by Snježana Herceg. After the program, many participants congratulated their hosts of Czech Beseda Rijeka for the excellent organization and the newly built Czech Home. Some of them, among others mayors of Řimov and Daruvar, also gave gifts to CB Rijeka president Fanika Husak. We thank everyone for kind words of support as well as the presents.
This year's festival was particularly demanding for Czech Beseda Rijeka. It was not only about preparing the program, lunch and dinner for all participants. Before the festival, we had to finish and put into function the building of the Czech Home in Rijeka. Although it is not completely finished, the new Home welcomed its first public event, even more demanding because of the large number of participants. Anyone who saw the inside of the Home only a week or even two days before the guests arrived could hardly believe that on September 22 everything would be finished and ready for performances and accommodation of singers. But it was ready, thanks to dedicated and unselfish work of more than 20 members of Czech Beseda Rijeka headed by their president Fanika Husak, who spent dozens of hours working on the building in the past couple of weeks. They were often working late in the night, and many of them spent entire days at the construction site or came back several times a day. Before everybody, after everybody, and almost at all times, Mrs. Husak was always there. Without her, the building of the Czech Home in Rijeka would not even exist today.
