#zakopower

so I went to the biggest polish festival in the US -- but mostly because it was Highlander (Góral) Day, because I’m Góral too, and they’re a tiny ethnic minority in Poland who live in the Tatra Mountains. basically hillbillies, Polish ppl would say, but they have an amazingly unique culture (kinda shared across the Slovakian border, and there’s similar mountain ppl all along the Carpathian mountains, etc., just called diff names [Lemkos, Boykos, Hutsuls] and they allied themselves w/ whatever country they happened to be in, etc.). 

so anyway i kinda wish there was more Góral-specific stuff, but there was an amazing Góral metalsmith:

and I bought a spinka (pin) from him! someday I’m gonna have an entire (”men’s”) costume, but .... we’ll see.

my spinka (ft. the Góral Pope)

(the mens costumes -- w/o capes tho. u can see the little spinki on their breasts)

and a Highlander display:

there’s some sheep bells and a sign displaying sheep cheese for sale (shepherds in mountain huts sell all the super yummy cheese and i could EAT IT ALL BC IT WAS SHEEP CHEESE).

the wooden cups hold bundz, a type of cheese similar to cottage cheese, horns I BELIEVE are trembitas, for communicating across the mountains

OKAY AND NOW THE BEST PART

I also really came for ZAKOPOWER, my fav band since I was in hs, which for me is like lifetimes ago. they’re SO COOL, and the lead singer was like my idol. he still is kinda. so nice and ngl he’s good-looking, and as a lesbian can still say that. I CAN’T BELIEVE I SAW THEM LIVE. I NEVER EVER THOUGHT I’D GET THIS CHANCE EVERRRRR.

it was so hard to take pics bc 1. it was pouring, 2. the lighting, lmao. but I was RIGHT in the front!! 

I watched traditional Highlander groups perform on this stage all day, so secured my spot, lmao. and then at the end, some of the ppl from the groups got to go really close to the stage (we were held back), and the main dude (Sebastian Karpiel-Bułecka) let them sing the chorus. he also is So So good on the violin. idk if i wanna post videos bc that’s just so (’.... really?’), but bc there’s SO FEW videos/pics of them on ... anywhere?!?!! (they don’t even have a TWITTER), I just might ... (they have an insta tho)

this is him, btw (with Kayah, a Really Famous Jewish singer-songwriter in Poland. she has her own record label too, and is kind of a Big Deal)