History

The Festivals were the brain child of Kazik and Ewa Brzeski. They, with the help of the organisation “Polish Post War Generations”, and the cooperation of several Polish Folklore groups in Great Britain successfully produced the first two Festivals in 1993 and 1995. After Kazik’s death in 1996, the organising committee and Ewa continued to prepare for the third Festival, which took place in 1997.

Each of these first three festivals was held in Royal Leamington Spa and were enormously successful.

In 1997 Maura Kutereba ( Karolinka) proposed to formalise our work by setting up a constituted Federation. She had been on the Festival organisinmang committee from the beginning along with Ewa and Kazik Brzeski, Leszek Bojanowski (Tatry), Andrzej Sagajllo (Zywiec), Basia Klimas-Sawyer (Orleta) and Janek Krupski (Polesie). Maura Kutereba became Chair of the Federation and remained so for 3 years. Subsequently Ewa Brzeska became Chair, followed by Basia Klimas-Sawyer (Orleta) from 2004 and Ania Szpek (Karolinka/Wiwat) from 2015.

In 1999 there was no festival organised within the U.K. Instead the Federation (which was officially established in 1997) helped to organise five groups to represent the U.K. at the International Festival of Polish Folklore in Rzeszow in Poland.

The event then began touring the U.K. bringing together the member ensembles:

2001 – The Lowry, Salford Quays, Manchester

2003 – Fairfield Halls, Croydon, London

2006 – Swan Theatre, High Wycombe

2009 – Symphony Hall, Birmingham

2012 – Corn Exchange, Cambridge

2015 – The Lowry, Salford Quays, Manchester

2018 – De Montfort Hall, Leicester

2023 – Fairfield Halls, Croydon, London

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