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Eat and be Merry
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Caldwell to celebrate annual Kolache Festival with food, song, drink
.
HEATHER BRONDY
The Battalion
Burleson County, the heart of central Texas,
will beat with Czech-love this Saturday in a cel
ebration of Czechoslovakian culture and her
itage. Its mascot? The kolache. Caldwell kicks off
its 15th annual Kolache Festival Saturday at 9
a.m. and will celebrate well into the wee hours
of the night.
Bernard Rychlik, festival chair and mayor of
Caldwell, said what began as a small kolache
bake-off for the town’s women has evolved into
an all-out Czech party.
“I was there from the start,” Rychlik said. “One
day we had a bake-off at the courthouse, and 1
was there translating the English announcements
to Czech. Someone said, ‘Hey, this is really fun,’
and the next year they brought out a band and
some crafts. From there, it’s just taken off.”
The kolache, the star of the festival, is a small,
round pastry made with bread dough and stuffed
with fruit or meat fillings. Rychlik said the ko
lache, which means “something round,” has an
interesting history.
“The kolache came from the old country and
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KIMBER HUFF/Thk Battalion
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started out much larger than the small pastries
sold in bakeries today,” he said. “But it was de
cided that it was too hard to eat, so we made it
into a finger food.”
Rychlik said the funny name comes from a
funny story.
“One day a woman was making pastries for
her daughter when the father came in and
grabbed one with his bare hands,” he said. “They
were so hot that he started spinning around. His
daughter began screaming, ‘Kolache! Kolache!’
which of course means ‘wheel,’ or in other words,
something that’s round.”
The Kolache Festival is not just about cele
brating pastries. Honey Dowdy, festival coor
dinator, said the kolache party really has less
to do with kolaches and more to do with cel
ebrating history.
“The Kolache Festival started to revitalize the
Czech heritage and celebrate all the wonderful tal
ents of the Czech people that migrated here and
the generations to follow,” Dowdy said. “It start
ed 16 years ago with a bake show, and the show
was so successful that we decided to ‘rally around
a pastry’ and create a celebration of Kolache.”
Dowdy said the festival includes a solid day of
music, crafts, dancing, eating, drinking and sim
ply getting to know the neighbors. Dowdy said
the most satisfying part of the festival is the sense
of community the celebration promotes
“Many people who have come to the Kolache
Festival as visitors have actually moved to Cald
well,” Dowdy said. “One industry located here be
cause of the community atmosphere experienced
at the Kolache Festival by one of the corporate
folk’s visit to the festival.”
For some people, however, the festival’s music
stands out as the highlight of the day. John Duj-
ka, a third-generation Czech and one half of The
Dujka Brothers band, said he is strongly affected
by the music played at the Kolache Festival.
“I’ve been twice before, and it’s a lot of fun,”
Dujka said. “There’s a lot of great entertainment
and arts and crafts, but for me, I really enjoy hear
ing the music and drinking some piros, which is
the Czech word for beer. That always makes
everyone hop a little higher. ”
This is the first year the Dujka Brothers will
perform at the Kolache Festival. Dujka, a piano
The Power to Succeed
and music-theory instructor at Blinn College in
Brenham, said he and his brother are hoping to
add a little twist to the celebration’s traditional
music flavor.
“We love the music and try to breathe some
new life into it,” he said. “We’re not a traditional
Czech band. What we like to do is take the tradi
tional music and play it using what technology to
day will allow us.”
Of course, the festival also has its fair share
of traditional Czech bands. Leland Miller, a re
tired engineer and member of The Kovanda’s
Czech Band, said the group’s traditional team
of musicians began years ago under the Czech
Concert Orchestra, directed by native Czecho
slovakian Kovanda.
“We played all over,” Miller said. “And when
Kovanda returned to Czechoslovakia, a group of
us decided to form a band. I’ve played at the Ko
lache Festival with this band for the past eight or
nine years.
“We like the festival because it’s all in one
day and everything’s all around the square
and it’s just a real happy time.”
For Miller, the community atmosphere is
one of the most striking elements of the festi
val, he said.
“That’s kind of the edge to the atmosphere
— the camaraderie and friendly community,”
he said.
Dowdy said approximately 40,000 people are
expected to attend the festival.
“The final ‘best’ part is the morning after,”
Dowdy said. “If you drive through the streets
of Caldwell where the festival took place just
a few hours previously, you can not find one
tell-tale shred of evidence that 40,000-plus
people were here.”
Dowdy said The Kolache Festival means many
things to her.
“I guess it’s proof that working together
can make wonderful things happen,” she said.
“It means that partnerships really work. It
means that a sense of community can be tast
ed by everyone. It means success is hard work
but feels terrific.
“It means homecoming, which it has become
for every household in Burleson County. All roads
lead to Caldwell through the Kolache Festival ”
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