Four days of concerts and dances, the best folk music bands, more than 30 hours of dancing, singing and instruments workshops, children’s activities, the Instrument Fair, and finally the DANCE NIGHT – 10 hours of great music, more than 30 bands and dancing madness until the wee hours. A hot Spring carnival is coming – the fourteenth All Mazurkas of the World Festival, a celebration of traditional music, dance and song.

The All Mazurkas of the World Festival will kick off on April 26. Joyful fun awaits us, for the young, the old and children. We’re going to explore new areas – learn about old folk music, today completely unknown or stylized. Prominent, experienced musicians, who remember the times of village weddings and dances, are invited. They are the Masters, surrounded by a circle of enthusiasts, disciples and continuators.

Young students (this year aged between 17 and 47) will showcase their skills at the Old Tradition concert (April 26). This will be the finale of the competition, which has been going on for the 12 year running. The winners have been the cream of the crop not only technically, but also in terms of getting to the roots and understanding the language of traditional music.

On Thursday (April 27), the festival stage will feature the music of southern Mazovia/northern Lesser Poland. The concert “Music from Szydłowiec,” a region where bands with pedal accordion, fiddle and baraban drum still play dance music, will let us hear the Adamczyk brothers’ band (once a wedding band) and their students.

The “Frontier Without Borders” concert (April 28) will be filled with music from the northeastern regions of Suwalki, Grodno and Belarus. There will be performances by the bands Pogranicze from Szypliszki, Chłopcy from Nowoszyszki, Kapela Koliśnija from Minsk and Poniemnie, with songs from the Nemunas river area.

The All Mazurkas of the World Festival is a bliss for dance enthusiasts. There will be daily dances in festival clubs, and Saturday’s hot Dance Night. Hundreds of people are eager to dance, and they keep coming. Bands from many regions of Poland and guests from Austria, Ukraine (Hudaki Village Band, US Orchestra), Sweden and Belarus will play for them this Spring.

A colourful part of the festival is the Instrument Fair (Saturday, April 29), from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. in the Fortress at 12 Zakroczymska Street, presenting the work of nearly 120 exhibitors from Poland, Slovakia, Germany, Latvia, Belarus and Ukraine – traditional, historical, reconstructed instruments as well as original inventions. Among them will be dulcimers, bagpipes, hurdy gurdies, pedal accordions, shawms, ocarinas, ligavka horns, as well as harpsichords, spinets and celestas. There will be much to delight in.

Little Mazurkas await the youngest – games, music, storytime, this time with the motto – “Do it yourself”. Cut-outs, paper flowers and an animated films will be created at the Ethnographic Museum (April 27) and at the Instrument Fair. On Saturday, three groups of talented children will play at the Fortress – Merry Mazurkas from Praga district, Orchestra of Joy and Krajeczka. This will be the best testimony to the multi-generational appeal of traditional music.

Festival venues:
Center for Promotion of Culture in the Praga Południe District, 2 Podskarbinska St.
Terminal Kultury, 24 Jana Nowaka-Jeziorańskiego St.
Forteca Kręgliccy, 12 Zakroczymska Street.
Ethnographic Museum, 1 Kredytowa St.
Sinfonia Varsovia, 272 Grochowska St.

Ticket prices – from 0 to 90 PLN, available through Bilety24 and at the entrance

More information: www.festivalmazurki.pl

Contact for accreditation: Jagna Knittel, jagnaknittel@gmail.com, 606 966 337

Honorary Patronage of the President of the Republic of Poland Andrzej Duda

Media Coverage: TVP Kultura, PR Dwójka, RDC radio, MuzykaTradycyjna.pl

Partners: Terminal Kultury Gocław, Center for Promotion of Culture Praga Południe, Forteca Kręgliccy, Ethnographic Museum in Warsaw, Sinfonia Varsovia, Wytwórnia Filmów Oświatowych Grant of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage for Promotion of Culture; co-financed by the City of Warsaw.