Poland was well represented alongside many other countries on Saturday, November 12, 2011 at the Brazos Valley Worldfest in College Station, Texas. The weather was nice as thousands of people entered the 20 acre Wolf Pen Creek Park for the international heritage celebration. The festival featured cultural displays, demonstrations, international cuisine, performances, children’s crafts, educational competitions and many other activities.
Our Polish Texan culture was represented at the festival by Brian Marshall and the Texas Slavic Playboys and the Polish Genealogical Society of Texas. Fiddler Brian Marshall, along with his son Jakub on clarinet, Ronnie Dutka on guitar and James Mazurkiewicz on bęben entertained the crowd with old time Polish music on the Community Stage in the morning and then joined Dr. Jim Mazurkiewicz and C. J. Jozwiak as they played more Polish music in front of the PGST booth in the afternoon.
Dolores Newman and Barbara Lee represented The Polish Genealogical Society of Texas with a beautifully decorated cultural display booth in the Global Village. In addition to the live Polish music by Dr. Jim Mazurkiewicz and friends, they had hundreds of Polish Easter eggs or pisanki for the kids to decorate, displays with Polish culture items and information on how to trace your Polish ancestry.
Below are a few photos of the fun and there is a slideshow of more photos on page 2. There are a few music videos in the Polish Texans Video section or you can see more videos on our YouTube Channel.
James Smock has always held an interest in his Polish ancestors and heritage. He is a native Houstonian with Polish roots in Bremond, Marlin and New Waverly, Texas.