The St Nicholas Orchestra have played over 1000 concerts in 14 countries. They are not only a musical ensemble, but standard bearers of a kind of art which demands constantly creating new styles and patterns. “We sometimes think of ourselves as the laboratory of tradition”. In 2005 the band received the Oskar Kolberg Award for the “popularisation of folk culture.”

We welcome the band to the Polish Arts Festival for their first live performance in England.

Polski Picnic - Sunday 12 September

Priory Park, Victoria Avenue, Southend-on-Sea SS2 6NB

Orleta is a popular and exciting amateur Polish folk song and dance group company from S.London, established in 1973 It is  full of fun and the joy of life. Although today you will only see a small group, it has 80 members: a student /senior group aged 15 – about 30 and three junior groups of children aged 5-14.

Orleta perform regularly at many different events at home and at international festivals in Britain and Poland. They have performed in other European countries, such as Germany, Italy and Lithuania.

Polski Picnic - Sunday 12 September

Priory Park, Victoria Avenue, Southend-on-Sea SS2 6NB

"Wow Story" is a spontaneous and dynamic performance with various characters, personalities, colourful costumes and stage design. All that makes shows fascinating for young audiences.

Children can became actively involved, take a part in the show and influence characters & stories as the show progresses. An amazing interactive experience for ages 3 to 12.

Polski Picnic - Sunday 12 September

Priory Park, Victoria Avenue, Southend-on-Sea SS2 6NB

Join us in the city centre. We will be making army uniform inspired accessories in the thin rooms of the army truck, displaying them in gilded framed windows and hold intimate specialists talks in the shed in the sky on the truck.

Come along, bring inspiring fabrics and commission your own accessories such as necklaces, bracelets, and belts. Sign up for talks and have a cup of tea.

Friday 10 and Saturday 11 September - Town Centre - all day

Sunday 12 September - Polski Picnic

Priory Park, Victoria Avenue, Southend-on-Sea SS2 6NB

The macrame workshops are being co-produced by Deconstruction Project and will be lead by artist Jolanta Surma. Jolanta has recently finished her degree in Hand-made Crafts from Universytet Ludowy in Sanok, Poland but has been creating macramé craft since 1983. Starting with simple plant hangers and owls, she has now moved on and produces beautiful works of art with macrame.

Sunday 12 September - Polski Picnic

Priory Park, Victoria Avenue, Southend-on-Sea SS2 6NB

Wycinanki workshops for children.

Wycinanki is a Polish version of the art form of paper cutting.

Paper wycinanki dates from the early to mid 19th century. Colorful wycinanki were pasted on furniture or roof beams as decoration, hung in windows, and given as gifts.

Sunday 12 September - Polski Picnic

Priory Park, Victoria Avenue, Southend-on-Sea SS2 6NB

Circus Skills workshops

Doc Spinoff was at the Polksi Picnic in 2009 and is returning due to popular demand. Tightropes for toddlers, unicycles, funny bikes, spinning plates, juggling batons... this is a serious crowd pleaser. After all, you’re never too young or too old to run away with the circus. And the best thing is it’s all free.

Sunday 12 September - Polski Picnic - all day

Priory Park, Victoria Avenue, Southend-on-Sea SS2 6NB

Multi Culti come from Theatre Lalek

Beautifully crafted giant puppets dressed in the national costume of four different countries, ‘Multi Culti’ will be mingling with the crowds at the Poski Picnic. Tom follery and mayhem aside, their mission is to make new friends and have a really good time in the process.

Sunday 12 September - Polski Picnic - all day

Priory Park, Victoria Avenue, Southend-on-Sea SS2 6NB

30 Bird Productions presents Seyf and Dobrowolski in Poland 3 Iran 2

In 1976, the best ever Polish football team played against  the best ever Iranian football team. Tomaszewski against Parvin. Poland win, only just.

In a humorous performance Seyf and Dobrowolski discuss football, revolution, swimming, chess, love and Subbuteo aided by footage from the match, installations and stills of their family histories from the present day to WWII.

Saturday 11 September 7 pm - The Railway Hotel

32 Clifftown Road, Town Centre, Southend-On-Sea SS1 1AJ

Agata Grela is a graduate of the Chelsea School of Art and the Sorbonne in Paris. Her work explores the uncanny through a series of binaries that she encounters in her everyday life. -  Polish/English - Folkloric Mythology/Historical Truths - Traditional Craft/Modern Technological Processes - Wilderness/Urbanity - Utopian Belief/Nihilism and Reason. In doing so, she explodes these supposed polarities by revealing their dialectical relationships. This exhibition is presented at the Polish Arts Festival by Deconstruction Project

Thursday 8 to Sunday 12 September 10 am to 5pm

Chalkwell Hall, Chalkwell Avenue, Southend-On-Sea SS0 8NB

30 Bird Productions presents Chodzenie-Siberia

A military truck,  a tower, a shed in the sky, a house cut in half and the British army: Chodzenie-Siberia is a spectacular outdoor event inspired by the journey of Poles to Siberia and Iran. Come and walk through regiments of soldiers, a wall of sound and enter the weird and wonderful world of Chodzenie-Siberia, see film projections on our truck, and climb a spiral staircase in the tower to look into the shed  and see trains and toys against vast landscapes.

Friday 10 and Saturday 11 September - The High Street, Southend

“Creativity requires courage” is a photographic portraits exhibition by Jaroslaw Baranik. It aims to introduce 10 participants, including The Queen’s Award for Enterprise 2010 winner in a context of their personal expressions and in work environments. Participants were asked to share their experiences and a philosophy or a thought which helped them on a way to success. It allowed creation of truly inspiring story based profiles to accompany the photos. The organisers felt it could break the anonymity of the Polish success in the UK and present real people rather than a dry database.

Sunday 12 September - Polski Picnic - all day

Priory Park, Victoria Avenue, Southend-on-Sea SS2 6NB

Ania Hobson is currently studying Fine Art at University Campus Suffolk . The focus of her work is portraits and animals portrayed in a variety of media including oils, pencil and charcoal. Recently she has specialized in Polish cultural imagery using traditional patterns and colour to emphasize the rich cultural diversity that still thrives in parts of Poland, and is part of her own heritage. Ania has already taken part in a number of exhibitions  both independently and also through the university. 

Sunday 12 September - Polski Picnic - all day

Priory Park, Victoria Avenue, Southend-on-Sea SS2 6NB

Giewont is the only polish highland band of its kind in Great Britain

representing the Podhale (Zakopane) region of Poland.  This is their third time at the festival where they will present music and song in the traditional band style of Zakopane, presenting not only music of the Podhale highlanders but also from Slovakia, Hungary and Rumania and the immediate surrounding Polish regions.  They frequently play at various private functions and also meet just in order to play the music they love so much.  They play entirely by ear, and have the motto 'We play what we like".  In 2010 they are celebrating 20 years as a group.

Sunday 12 September - Polski Picnic - all day

Priory Park, Victoria Avenue, Southend-on-Sea SS2 6NB