CONSONANCE - History

The international festival Consonance was created in 1999 as a one-day event, motivated by the handing over of the Christmas tree by the Czech Republic to Vatican that year. Its present-day form gradually developed over the following years. The festival addresses the general public in the festive pre-Christmas time with the aim to acquaint visitors with Advent music, Christmas customs, carols and rich folk customs, including Christmas handicrafts. It focuses on the vanishing world of folk traditions (a notion overlapping at times with "national" traditions) of the part of the Carpathian Arch that lies in the territory of the Czech Republic (northern Moravia and Silesia). We always invite guest ensembles from the neighbouring regions of Poland, Slovakia and Hungary, but also from more distant countries as Ukraine or Russia.

From the ethnographic point of view we regard the above mentioned part of the Moravian-Silesian Region together with the border areas of Poland and Slovakia as "one family" – a region divided only by state frontiers. Thanks to the participation of outstanding artists from the world of folk music that often overlaps with contemporary musical genres, verbal art and handicrafts, the spectators will view and hear the performances in a genial atmosphere full of poetry. An essential feature of the festival is the interlinking of generations, with presentations by children and adults, amateur and professional artists, and masters of folk handicrafts.

The festival is organized by the music agency Zdeny and co-organized by the corporate town of Ostrava, the township of Kozlovice, the Folk Ensemble Valašský vojvoda (www.valasskyvojvoda.cz) and the Folklore Association of the Czech Republic (www.folklornisdruzeni.cz). It is traditionally sponsored by prominent personalities of the Moravian-Silesian Region.