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Štrba is a village with a clear view of the Vysoké Tatry mountains. General pictures of village life follow, from the ordinary to the special times. Just before leaving the village and country in August, we attended a folk festival. This means of transferring traditional ways from generation to generation started in a public way after the revolution in the early 1990s, when freedom was gained to remember and celebrate Slovakian past and present. Vendors sold goods including decorated gingerbread cookies, and the festival was covered by a television crew from Poprad. The crowd was enthusiastic!
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| 26 August 2007 was the 18th Štrbské Slávnosti or Štrba Folk Festival! It was a perfect, sunny day for celebrating Slovakian folk traditions through song, dance, comedians, and speeches.
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Preparations started Sunday morning, and the main events began at 1 pm. The festival was at the sport stadium, near the school and where soccer matches are held. A covered stage was constructed, complete with lights and speakers.
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Dancers arrived as the Aladdin was inflated, a soft slide that kept young people busy most of the day. Car dealers brought new vehicles to show including sedans and station wagons from Seat (Spain), Skoda (Czech Republic), and Ford (Europe).
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| Swans and ducks enjoyed a break from their duties in a zoo, while a local kitten warmed in the sun nearby.
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People assembled and a wonderful band from Poprad began the event. Two singers were accompanied by brass instruments as well as clarinet, flutes, guitar, and drums.
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Costumes for women were colorful with aprons and black boots. Men wore shirts, pants, and vests rich with embroidary, and some had thick, decorated leather belts and black felt hats with brims that curled up. A mature group of folk singers welcomed the crowd and several governmental dignitaries from the region and capital, Bratislava. Flowers were given to a high official of the country.
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A group of young women danced with brooms in the picture to the left, and the accompanying band was stage right. Men and women danced in separate groups and at other times, together. They all seemed professional and varied considerably in age and level of difficulty in performance.
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A log sawing contest shown below, tested the skills of two-man saw teams. A rhythm of pushing and pulling teamwork seemed more important than mere strength.
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The dancing and singing performances culminated to a ballet-theatre company from Košice, a city of nearly 300,000 located about 60 miles southeast of Štrba.
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After watching the sunset and full moon rise, the professional dancing finished, raffle prizes were given away, and the rock concert commenced! It was a fun day with something for everyone. In addition to the performances, off-stage activities varied from EMTs with the ambulance service taking blood pressure and giving strecher rides to implement dealers showing off the newest electric lawn mowers! Gasoline mowers and trimmers are also shown, but electric mowers are perfect for the small yards.
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It was one of the clearest days since we arrived and the mountains make a beautiful backdrop for the city, as seen behind the church below. There are two churches in the village as is the case in most Slovakian villages and towns.
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Catholic and Evangelical churches are usually located in the center of a village and seem to be two important cornestones in most communities.
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| The post office and postal drop box are in the center of the village as well. The post box has an example of how to address mail on the front.
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This statue and city government building, in the same design as the post office, are also along the main street through Štrba.
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| This is a rural community with an obvious emphasis on a farm economy. This chicken was one of our neighbors, while these turkeys guarded a backyard down the street from us.
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The turkeys lived and worked beside this barn, which had amassed a collection of wheel covers from cars. Bumps in the road and driving too fast often cause the wheel cover to pop off!
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| Cutting wheat has been a main priorty in August. The grain is going to storage areas in wagons pulled by a tractor in this case. Combines are moved from field to field through the village, which we observed and photographed from the upper story of our house. The green is a Claas and red, Massey Ferguson.
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| We have photographed other big loads moving along the street in front of our house. There is major highway construction happening to improve the main infrastructure connecting the western and eastern portions of the country. This four-lane divided highway is a few kilometers north of Štrba and construction is ongoing. Trucks use the main village street to move from one area of construction to another as seen by the vehicles that routinely pass by.
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Štrba is a nice rural community with good access to mountains. The high mountains are north of the city and lower mountains to the south and east. When the sport stadium is not hosting a folk festival, it is used for soccer.
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Štrba has access to larger cities such as Košice, where we visited friends. We left the high Tatra mountains, but continue to cross lower mountains to reach our destination. While the divided highway is not complete from Štrba to Kosice, one main tunnel is in operation.
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