Party on Dejvicka Ulice

When the Czechs throw a party, they don't mess around! On Friday morning when I went to school, the street in front of our building was empty of parked cars, and the street cleaners were hard at work. In the next block down, 3 trucks were busy removing the parked cars that had been left on the street despite the no-parking signs.

When I came home, tents and booths had been set up, and the stage had gone up across the street. The sound system was in place, and everything was ready for Saturday.

Once again the Czechs of Prague 6 celebrated their liberation day, May 8, with a street fair and military display. Although it was the Russian Army that actually reached Prague first, you wouldn't know that by the displays that were in place.



We wandered around on street level for a while sampling the ethnic food (don't laugh Chris, it was good!) and of course a beer or three, and then we retired to our terrace for the best seats for the musical performances.

The show opened with the Czech Armed Forces Band playing the Czech national anthem, followed by the Stars and Stripes Forever. Beautiful! Then they played some big band numbers that I have always loved, and even the Frank Sinatra song, My Way.

Note the American military vehicles on either side of the stage...

Throughout the afternoon and evening, there was a variety of performances, including a wonderful folk dance group known as Gaudeamus.

The festivities all ended at 9PM, and the sudden quiet was astounding! I rather missed the thumping bass from the rock bands that had been on stage in the evening.

The clean-up crew was just as diligent as the set-up folks were. The tear-down began right after the performances, and at midnight they were still dismantling the stage. Lots of clanking metal sounds echoed off the buildings as they packed everything up. Yes, just a tad annoying when trying to sleep! And this morning, we were up early despite it being a Sunday, as the street cleaners were back at work. I went out onto the terrace first thing and looked up and down the street, and not a trace of yesterday's party was left, except that no cars had yet filtered back to take up their spaces.

Nice!