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DANA'S
REPORT
DETVA 1997
Dear friends!
At this time I should have already been
visiting the USA, but, unfortunately, I didn’t get the visa, so I’m
spending this year’s summer in Slovakia. But everything has got its
advantages - I could visit several folk festivals, especially the one
which takes place in my native town Detva every second weekend of July.
The festival has got its own
conception, which you already know from my previous articles, so I’m not
going to give you any detailed description. I think you could be
interested more in some events, meetings, and experiences of mine.
Before the official opening of the
festival, always on Friday evening there are already a lot of various
activities like competitions, contests, exhibitions etc. These usually
take place in the museum, church or in house of culture, not in the area
of the amphitheater. I wanted to see everything, so I stopped everywhere
for a while. Before the evening started I went to the amphitheater and my
first "task" was to find Vladimir. It was quite easy to find
him, even among thousands of people. First I was looking for his pink cap,
but to see it I would have had to sit on a tree and look around from up
there. I could have asked somebody if he or she hadn't seen him yet, but
that would be TOO EASY. I relied on my detective abilities. It was
interesting to watch how the people run towards somebody who could
possibly be "that ucok Vlado" breaking their conversations and
leaving their partners alone. He is very popular around here and
everybody's glad to meet him. When I finally met Vlado, he surprised me
with a little gift (fragrance was beautiful)! We didn't even have time to
talk because there were already other friends of Vlado who wanted to say
hello, shake hands, kiss and embrace him. He quickly told me some of his
new jokes and moved forward. Actually, a 50-meter's long way from the
entrance gate to the auditorium takes him half an hour, maybe more. He
doesn't make more that 2 or 3 steps when there is already someone who
embraces him leaving him then free to talk to other people. There were
some duties waiting for me as well. For me Detva festival wouldn't
"count" if I didn't play with some of the folk groups. I met my
old friends from the group Dobrona
who just in case brought a costume for me having expected that I’d play
with them on the stage. One hour before the performance I didn't know what
we were going to play yet, but that’s not a problem. It’s enough to
say the tune we play in - and an experienced folk musician can go straight
on the stage.
Having performed with Dobrona I
fulfilled the obligation I gave myself and now I could start watching the
program in a place of a spectator.
The amphitheater is situated just
behind the very last houses of the village and that’s approximately 3-4
kilometers from the new part of Detva neighborhood. Normally, when I meet
in the street, we say hello, talk for a while and then we just keep on
walking. But once we've crossed the entrance gate of the amphitheater,
everybody kisses everybody, people embrace as if they haven't seen each
other for several years (even if they already met in the town the same
day). At least half of the visitors' folk musicians, singers, and dancers,
who even if they don't perform, come here to feel this unique and
unforgettable atmosphere. I met my students who kissed me hello and my
former teachers who I kissed hello. Everybody is equal here, we have fun,
and we play and sing all together. A little 10 year old musician plays
side by side with a 60 year old, experienced "primas." Here you
"pick up" the experience, make new acquaintance and friends.
My mother can't be missing at any
program. She is not a folk musician, but she kind of a "belongs to
the inventory." All my relatives know that during the festival we
don't cook at home. Who would stand beside the stove all day, when there's
so much fun up there in old Detva? On Friday my mom makes a lot of
goulash, our relatives, and friends are given the keys and if somebody is
hungry, he/she goes home and eats. There are packsacks, musical
instruments, personal things all around the apartment; it looks like a
camp! But that also belongs to the festival and we really enjoy having new
and new visitors. My mom enjoys watching the musicians from Detva and
surroundings on the stage. Many of them used to be (or still is) her
student at the school of music in Detva where she teaches. She considers
the question: "Guess which of these I haven't taught?" to be a
good joke. It's very funny for us and we enjoy laughing at her jokes of
this kind. Her students, guys and girls, come to talk, they shake hands,
they tell her about themselves..., and my mom is very happy to hear about
their success. There were quite a few well known personalities, people
famous in cultural and political life of Slovakia in Detva this year. We
could also meet a lot of foreigners, not only folk groups from abroad, but
many foreign people who came on their own as well.
Besides being happy and nice to each
other again, you could also see some tears in our eyes-especially during
the performance of Slovaks living abroad. Maybe they don't fell that way
as we do here in Slovakia; they are happy in their home countries and
happy when they can come to Slovakia. They found their homes elsewhere and
their hearts take them there. The program on Sunday morning was very
touching for all of us and when it finished, whole audience spontaneously
stood up saying goodbye with great applause and tears. This year we had
Slovaks from the Czech Republic, Yugoslavia, Croatia, Hungary, Ukraine,
Belgium, Romania, and Brazil. All of them were very, very good. It was
very hard to say if the person dancing on the stage is native Slovak or a
not. I have to say a few words about the group from Brazil, because it was
special for me. Brazil is something I keep in my heart. Not a folk
group Mladost, but mainly because of my friend - former "primas"
(first violinist) of our folk band Valaska, that we played in together
during our university studies - Adriana Valaskova who found her love and
home in Brazil. Ada came to Slovakia with the folk group Radost from Sao
Paulo, she is a leader of this group. They had two performances. In the
first dance (it looked like "capoeira" to me). Ada danced in a
Brazilian costume and in the second one she played "Dances from
Horehronie" with a Slovak folk band. When we met, we couldn't talk
about usual things; we only held each other's hands, very long and very
tight. Ada has many friends here, she wanted to say hello to everybody. As
I was watching their performance, I couldn't concentrate, I was only
looking at Ada and crying all the time. And then we couldn't find each
other; we didn't even say goodbye! We used to study and play together for
so many years, sometimes we got angry, said bad things to each other. But
after such a strong experience all mistakes and wrong things simply go
away and one remembers only good old students' times spent together. I'm
sure Ada reads this newsletter-maybe she could write about the feelings
she had when she came to the old well known places as a "guest."
Well, enough of nostalgia. One of the
most important things of the festival is-the weather. As one week before
in Vychodna it was raining, we knew, even without weather forecasts, that
the sun would shine in Detva. It is always like this- if there is sunshine
in Vychodna, we expect rain in Detva. Some people took their umbrellas
with them to protect themselves from the hot sun. And this was a very wise
decision! On Saturday, right in the middle of the children's program, a
"greeting from heaven" came down on us. A big black cloud
appeared all of a sudden, moving very fast, we could hear a thunder and
then it started raining so heavily that everybody started running trying
to find a shelter. But where could several thousands of people hide? So we
hid under the trees, behind the fence, one person close to another, so
that we would at least stay partly dry. The rain was so heavy that the
water dropped on our heads even through the umbrellas. Ten minutes later
the sun was shining again and the seats in the auditorium were almost dry
when we came back there. That big cloud just probably came to see what was
happening at the amphitheater, down in the village, a hundred meter’s
from there, people didn't see a single drop of rain.
During the folk festival people don't
care about etiquette so much. Their clothes are of different kinds. Many
people are dressed in folk costumes, some are in bathing suits, the others
in jeans, these wear boots, and those that are bare footed. We usually
take blankets with us to sit more comfortably. If it is cold, we cover
ourselves with the blankets and go home like that. Just imagine this: in
your country, in the street you meet such a creature, tired, wet from the
rain, drunk a bit, "wrapped" in blanket and the creature sings
all through the way. Maybe you would call the police. When I go to the
amphitheater, I usually spend whole day there, so I look like this:
packsack with a blanket on my back, viola hanging on my shoulder, suitcase
with costume in my hand, a bottle of something in case I meet a good
friend, a bag with a day's food in the other hand (although there's no
time to eat and no time to sleep, normally). Well, I exaggerate a bit, not
everybody looks like that, only those real fans of folklore that cannot
miss one single hour of the festival and can’t go home to eat something
or change their clothes.
When I talk about how the people are
dressed there, I have to remind you of Vladimir again. I watched him from
the auditorium when he was taking pictures of the performing people and I
tried to count the number of pockets on his jeans and the two of his
vests. There were so many different strings, laces, cameras hanging all
around him, pockets were sagging though they were already empty, and he
had already given away all the gifts he brought. He moved very fast, he
was everywhere and he managed to see and do everything. He was giving not
only gifts to his friends, but smiles and jokes as well. Vlado has
probably got a computer in his head, he knows everyone, knows everything
about him and if there’s someone he doesn't know yet, he immediately
makes friends with him/her and puts all the information about the person
into that computer of his.
I don't know where he went at the end
of the whole program I lost him. I had to go to Banska Bystrica in the
evening, so we didn't meet. But with Vlado you always have this feeling
that it was just yesterday when you saw him last and tomorrow he'll be
back again.
After the second Sunday of July people
leave Detva tired, but smiling and happy, having been kissed so much, it's
enough for the whole coming year till the next festival comes. My
boyfriend, who for two days let me enjoy all the wild meetings with my old
friends, came to Detva only on Sunday and this way he could be a witness
of my saying goodbye (at least as crazy and friendly as saying hello!).
I'm glad he's so tolerant and admits that kissing and embracing was ok
under the circumstances.
My dear friends reading this
newsletter, don't you want to make plans for next year's summer holiday
and come to Slovakia? To be honest- there may not be such a comfort as
you'd find at some other places, but if the weather is "good" to
us, It's worth it! And not to feel so comfortable from time to time,
that's all right. If it doesn't work out in Detva, it certainly does in Vychodna,
Helpa, Terchova, Myjava, Banska Bystrica.
There’s something happening every week-activities connected with
folklore and national traditions. And those-I hope-won’t die out in our
country, till the world exists.
Yours Dana
Dana Hodulova
A. Bernolaka 2
962 12 Detva
Slovakia
All
photographs are for sale
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BACK TO FOLKLORE FESTIVALS
Published in the Slovak
Heritage Live newsletter Volume 5, No.3, Fall 1997
Copyright © Vladimir Linder 1997
3804 Yale
Street, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada V5C 1P6
The above article and photographs may not be copied, reproduced,
republished, or redistributed by any means including electronic, without
the express written permission of Vladimir
Linder. All rights reserved.
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