My Weekend at the Czech Music Festival
Last weekend Janessa and I took the long road to Ennis to cover the Ennis Czech Music Festival for the Texas Polka News. The festival started out Friday night and continued Saturday with a full day of polka music at the Ennis Sokol Hall.
If you’ve never been to the Sokol Hall in Ennis, it’s quite something to behold.
It was finished in 1991 after the former hall burned down. According to a story told to me by a local, and forgive me for not understanding the intricacies of that organization’s leadership, but the president or chairman or whomever was in charge at the time envisioned building this massive hall. Quite a few folks disagreed on these grand plans. But eventually, a 27,000 sq. ft. behemoth was built with a capacity of more than 1,100 people.
The Sokol movement started out as an all-ages gymnastics society in the Czech lands of Europe in the 1800s, even before there was a Czech nation. It had sort of a militant nationalistic element in the early days. The founders based it on the principle of “a sound mind in a strong body.”
The word “sokol” means falcon in English. They would hold large gatherings which included mass gymnastics demonstrations, sometimes consisting of thousands of people exercising at once, along with speeches and theatrical events. These gatherings are called a “slet,” meaning something like a “flocking of birds” in English.
When Czechs started immigrating to the United States in the later half of the 19th century, they brought this organization with them. There are still Sokol halls in other parts of the country where the Czechs settled like Omaha and Wilbur in Nebraska, Cleveland, and Chicago.
The Sokol movement down here in Fayette County died out many years ago. Hostyn in particular had a very active Sokol chapter in the 1920s. But for whatever reason, they’re not around today. We still have Czech benevolent societies like the KJT, KJZT, SPJST, and others, but nothing quite like Sokol.
Ennis Sokol offers youth gymnastics, swimming, and adult volleyball. Above every door in the hall hangs a sign in Czech: kuchyně for kitchen, kancelář for office, sklad for storeroom, and so on. Little things like this, I think, has helped the Czechs of that area hang on to their language and culture better, perhaps, than other places where Czech descendants live today.
And the kids love to dance. All weekend we saw teenagers spinning and twirling across the dancefloor. They know the seven-step polka, the fast waltzes, the Garden Waltz, and every variety of movement in the Czech dance reportois.
The hall also has a club room for the grownups open Monday and Wednesday nights, occasionally on Fridays, and on Sundays whenever the Dallas Cowboys are playing. They show a Czech movie on the first Thursday night of the month.
And like at any place Czechs gather, you’ll find food and drink. The kitchen makes one of the best hamburgers in town. But don’t pass on the klobase (sausage) and kraut boat. They stock the bar with all the usual suspects, but also fine pivo from the Czech nation like Czechvar and Pilsner Urquell, and that notorious Czech plum brandy, Slivovitz.
The club room is usually for members only (except during public events like the music festival last weekend). A sign posted on the wall says guests may only visit the club room three times a year, otherwise they must become a member.
I’ve been up to Ennis a few times now, and I’m always intrigued by people’s last names. Some of them are familiar to folks from Fayette County: Matus, Trojacek, Marek, Macik, Hajek. But then there are others like Vrla, Slovak, Moucka, and Prachyl.
We had a great time listening to the bands that played: The All Around Czechs, Jodie Mikula Orchestra, Czech and Then Some, The Moravians and The Ennis Czech Boys. All of those bands are based around Ennis. So we don’t get to see them too often down here in Central Texas.
If you feel like you missed out, don’t worry. The City of Ennis hosts the massive National Polka Festival on May 23-25. Janessa and I went two years ago and we hope to make it back this year. The event includes dances at three halls: Sokol, KJT and the SPJST halls in Ennis, along with a big stage in downtown. Polka bands from all over Texas and beyond will perform. Festivities also include one of the best parades in Texas, if you ask me.
If you like dancehalls and polka music, check out the Texas Polka News. The newspaper comes out once a month, both in print and digitally. We also send out a weekly email newsletter with listings of all the dances taking place. Subscribe at texaspolkanews.com, and check out our sister website polkabeat.com to keep up