History of the festival
In 1952, a celebration has been made for the 100th century of the first edition of Božena Němcová's novel "Babička" (The Grand-mother) at the castle's ruins Rýzmburk, that means quite at the place where the events of the novel were situated. The stage has been built in a dry pond and the audience was sitting on the banks. I t was also the first performance of the folklore group Hadař. But nobody thinks that the celebration could have such a success, and the organisers had much to do with more than 5,000 persons.
From 1960, the Festival has a performance at the Town Theatre on Saturday evening; some concerts of sacral music have been given in the churches, and so on… The Festival got the participation of many wellknown professional, half professional or non-professional groups from Bohemia, Moravia and Slovakia, and also many foreign groups from Finland, France, Italy, Sweden, Germany, Poland, Scotland, the ex-USSR and many others.
In 2003 this organization gave the appeciation to the direktor of folklore festival to Mr. Medilek (contemporary the mayor of town Cerveny Kostelec). This appreciation was awarded for the promotion fo the peace between the people in all over the world and for the development folk art. This high appreciation is not only thanks for his effor, but also the contribution and the appreciation for all the town and for this festival.
For your information, in 1996, the Festival lasted for five days with more than 750 persons on the stage and ten groups from abroad.