Accompanying events

Czech National Day

On the 24th of June, the entire exhibition centre belonged to the Czech Republic: literally. The Czech contribution was the only one of over 120 participating countries, to spread its top presentation into both concert halls and also into the open areas around the Czech pavilion. Let's not get ahead of ourselves, though: let's see what happened before this extremely organisationally demanding event.

The simplicity and professionalism with which the entire event was prepared and also subsequently implemented could lead some people to consider that it only concerned a decision on exactly what we are willing to present to our viewers on our national day. Even that, however, was a demanding task. Not only according to the saying "as a Czech, as a musician", but also mainly because Czech musical culture is at the highest level in an international context, a musical presentation was chosen. Czechs have a very strong position in Japan, whether as composers or as musical performers and our artists are, as it were, constantly present on Japanese stages. Specialist commissions have been meeting since 2003 and trying to chose the best from a long line of the best orchestras, folk ensembles and choirs that we can offer to EXPO visitors. The selection commissions also made an effort to present the whole Czech Republic in its cultural wealth to viewers through music of all genres. In the end, the decision was made for the Prague Symphonic Orchestra FOK, conducted by Petr Altrichter and with outstanding soloists, a picturesque connection of the jazz trio of Emil Viklicky with Zuzana Lapčíkova, the internationally successful Children's choir Severáček from Liberec and the folk ensemble Valašský Vojvoda from Kozlovice.

As the date of the Czech National Day is right in the middle of the rainy season, during which the usually pleasant agoja and its surroundings become an unbearably hot and humid sauna, we were worried that possible unpleasant weather might put off viewers. Luckily it was shown that Czechs also have even supernatural supporters at EXPO and so we enjoyed beautiful sunny weather throughout the whole day, which attracted tens of thousands of visitors to the exhibition centre. However, the weather was not the only reason for multitudes of people to come to the EXPO. During the two weeks prior to the Czech National Day, the Czech pavilion was under siege from visitors from the whole of Japan, who were looking for all available information. It made us wonder what a large number of young people were interested, who had not experienced the Czechoslovakian triumph in Osaka; only a mere retelling from their parents and grandparents convinced our young supporters that they should not miss our National Day. Everyone, regardless of age, was carried away with the informative booklets for which we published a separate program for the National Day as well. Both were available free of charge at the pavilion for several days before the actual event took place.

The Japanese media also showed an interest. Radio stations broadcasted advertisements and we gave interviews in which we enticed viewers to visit our National Day and the Czech pavilion. We also had attention given to us from the public television channel NHK, which devoted an entire half hour of afternoon broadcast to us, in which the clarinet player Ludmila Peterková, one of the soloists from the gala-concert of FOK, enchanted viewers with her bravado act. Also finally during the actual National Day, 3 private television channels visited us, which had offered their viewers live feeds from the pavilion and concert halls throughout the day. The Czech media did not lag behind and in this way the Czech public could become familiarised in advance with the program and later also get updates on the progress of the Czech National Day.

Many articles have been written on what the Czech Republic means to the Japanese and on how they value our culture. However, we were surprised by the depth of knowledge of not only those who remembered, but also of the younger generation. In the minds of the Japanese, such names as Smetana, Dvořák, Zátopek and Čáslavská have evidently become set for eternity. Without exaggeration, you can have a chat to a taxi driver anywhere in the country about these famous Czechs. Without hesitation, they will tell you their seemingly encyclopaedic knowledge of our country and culture. However, we have come to EXPO with the fact that we want to present new, so far unknown names and faces to Japan. We have therefore chosen artists whose success on Japanese podiums and in galleries is still awaited, along with well-known stars. That does not apply solely to the Czech National Day, but to all accompanying programs. Our focus during the themed weeks, which took place before June 24th, was shown to be correct because we attracted tens of thousands of viewers to the pavilion and to the concert halls. Despite this, we waited with suspense on how the Japanese public would take in our top day-long presentation.

Long before the celebratory commencement, which took place in the EXPO Dome, multitudes came together in front of this main cultural stall in order to get the best spots. The view of long queues was a signal for us that everything is on the right track and so we finally entered the EXPO Dome too. We were welcomed by an unbelievable view: a huge hall for 3,500 viewers was already totally full an hour before the start and other viewers kept waiting in front of the hall in the hope that at least one single place would become free! That itself was unusual. We had not recorded such an interest in the celebratory ceremonial event, which is in the main formal part, even for such "giants", such as the USA, Russia or Germany. Even Japanese organisers, who had to guide the long queues in front of the entrance, were surprised by such interest.

At exactly 11:00 the celebratory fanfares rang out and the main official actors of the whole day entered the EXPO Dome podium: the commissioner-general of EXPO 2005 Taizo Watanabe, Šoičiró Tojoda, the chairman of the organising Association, the commissioner-general of the Czech Republic Vladimír Darjanin, and the Czech Republic Prime Minister Jiří Paroubek. Japanese representatives of the Association gave short presentations, in which they accentuated the cultural wealth of the Czech Republic, and above all the previous success of our participation in Aichi, which was not afraid to be different and original. The Prime Minister said in his speech, among other things: "The Czech Republic was one of the first countries that committed to take part in this World Exposition and I consider that to be a clear signal of the high priority that the Czech government gives to this exhibition and to its concept. The Czech Republic has made a sincere effort to contribute with its work to the fulfilment of this concept and to the success of EXPO 2005." After the official start, it was time for a taster of the cultural program that awaited the viewers throughout the rest of the day. After the performance of the children's ensemble Severáček from Liberec, which included Japanese folk songs in its repertoire, with which it immediately gained the favour of the public, the folk ensemble Valašský vojvoda from Kozlovice performed, which literally got the Japanese out of their seats with its show of traditional dances from the Lašsko-Valašského frontier. The viewers themselves made an effective mark on the morning program: at one moment the entire hall literally began to wave thousands of little Czech flags, which all the devoted fans waved above their heads and made it clear by doing so that the Czech Republic and its culture are constantly highly valued in the minds of the Japanese.

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