Ready, set, polka! Historic Polka Fest brings 15 bands and lots of fans to Black Bear

According to Florian Chmielewski, polka started some 150 years ago when a 15-year-old Czechoslovakian girl set to music the rhythmic marching of soldiers. “She was watching the soldiers, you know how they do that quick catch-up step,” Chmielewski said. “You keep doing that step during the polka.” From Czechoslovakia, the polka spread across Europe, to Poland and Austria, even to the ballrooms in Paris.

By: Jana Peterson, Pine Journal