The Folklore Festivals of Moravia

Southeast Moravia kept its folk music and costume when most of Central Europe let them go, and the summer calendar is built around it. The international festival at Straznice, running since 1946, uses the chateau park for several days of stages at the end of June. Hornacko holds its own festival at Velka nad Velickou in July, smaller and closer to the source. In autumn individual villages hold hody, harvest feasts with a procession, a band and open cellars. The sound is a cimbalom band, hammered dulcimer with violins, clarinet and bass, and the men's recruit dance verbunk, on UNESCO's intangible list, is the piece everyone waits for.

What you actually see

• Verbunk - the improvised men's recruit dance, each dancer taking the floor alone.
• Cimbalom bands - hammered dulcimer with violins, clarinet and double bass.
• Kroje - embroidered costumes that differ village by village, down to the stitch.
• Village hody - autumn harvest feasts with a procession and cellars open along the lane.

When to go

Straznice at the end of June is the big one; Hornacko follows in July; village hody run from late August into October. Book beds and tickets early, because these are small places with almost no accommodation and the nearest hotels are in Uherske Hradiste or Hodonin. Evening programmes are the strongest and run late.

Honest expectations

Programmes and announcements are in Czech only, and nobody will translate the sung dialect for you. Main-stage seating is limited and the grounds turn to mud in rain or bake in full sun. Village hody are family events where you are a guest at the edge rather than an audience. Late evening slides into serious drinking and the last buses go early.

Nearby

Straznice sits at the edge of the Moravian wine villages; the Bile Karpaty hills rise to the east.