2018 - 100 YEARS OF THE CZECHOSLOVAK REPUBLIC

In 2018, the whole Czech Republic lived with the 100th anniversary of declaration of the independent Czechoslovak Republic. As a part of our festival, we also celebrated the 155th anniversary of the foundation of the Sokol Union in Pilsen and the 150th anniversary of the visit of Miroslav Tyrš in Pilsen. According to the historical facts it was a great event and the visit of Miroslav Tyrš was accompanied by the celebration of "flag consecration" - there was a symbolic "hitting of nails" and folklore costume dressed girls ... We celebrated both anniversaries during the 2018 festival with the programme called " Silou lví vzletem sokolím" (on June 9, 2018 at 11am, U Branky Stage), which took place in cooperation with the Sokol Union of Pilsen, the Jiskra Folklore Ensemble 58 Sokol Valcha Pilsen and the Museum of West Bohemia in Pilsen. During the festive programme, several rare historical artefacts from the collections of the Ethnographic Department of the Museum of West Bohemia in Pilsen were presented: three historical Sokol costumes (Sokol exercise costume for junior girls which dated back to the 1930s, Sokol exercise costume for junior girls which dated back to the 1948, Sokol exercise costume for pupils from the 1930s) and the historic Sokol flag (the historic flag of the TJ Sokol Bílá Hora).

In the same year and in cooperation with the Ethnographic Museum of Pilsen and Czech Radio Pilsen, we prepared a commemorative programme (June 9, 2018 at 7pm, U Branky Stage) which reminded us of an important Pilsen ethnographer and a former director of the museum Dr Marie ULČOVÁ who died 20 years ago. During the programme there were several rare archive soundtracks of Dr Marie Ulčová voice presented from the Czech Radio Pilsen archive.