Experience the Enchanting Haná Folk Festival: This Year in Velké Bystřice
The sixteenth edition of the Meeting of the Hanaks is scheduled for Sunday, September 28, 2025, and will mark the end of the first part of the festival’s journey through the Hana region. This event first took place in Velká Bystřice in 2010, where a large gathering of people in costumes celebrated the opening of the newly constructed amphitheater. Since then, the festival has drawn crowds not just from Velká Bystřice but also from places like Doloplazy, Tovačov, Prostějov, Zábřeh, Olomouc, Čech pod Kosířem, Přerov, Náměště na Hané, Kojetín, Nákla, and Příkaz.
This traveling festival, which showcases the rich folklore of the Haná region through costumes, dances, songs, traditions, and crafts, is now considered one of the most significant ethnographic events in the Olomouc Region. Attendees can look forward to a diverse lineup of stage performances by folklore groups, dulcimer and brass bands, blessings happening in the local church, stalls featuring traditional crafts, along with concerts and dance shows from some of the top professional groups from the Czech Republic and other countries.
Parade, featuring not just the costumed Hanaks but also groups from the host town, will march down 8th May Street to the amphitheater, where the festival kicks off at 12 p.m. On two stages, numerous Haná folklore groups will perform shows titled Dež mladi singing and playing, Po hanácke sobě dopnem, alongside a gala presentation by the Haná Folklore Society. This special program, known as Haná costume in the centuries, provides a scenic retrospective of the Velkobystřice Festival of Costume, crafted by Mrs. Bronislava Millá since 2008. There’s also a wealth of additional activities: the park will host a Costume counselling room, a sales kiosk featuring publications from the Hanak Folklore Association, horse-drawn carriage rides, and a large craft market with hands-on experiences like a Haná primer and children’s workshops in skills like bobbin making, wirework, pottery, and traditional printing methods.
The festival will conclude with a concert by the Moravian folk-rock world-music group Koňaboj , and to finish off, the dance ensemble Hradistan will perform at KD Nadační, joined by Dulcimer music Smetanka Brno in a show titled Wandering through the landscapes of the human soul.
