The community center/halls in this collection were built by organizations dedicating to assisting ethnic/religious groups and as a center for education, culture, family bonding, and entertainment. The following three groups were the primary leaders in the positive endeavor.
About the images – most of these images are from the Roger Kolar collection as explained below. Others are from the McKee archives.
Please check polkabeat.com, venue websites or call to confirm as we update the schedule daily.
The 55 annual National Polka Festival in Ennis, Texas has been klobase wrapped up until next year. The three days of merriment has proven that live music is alive and well in 2022. A rough estimate is that tens of thousands of folks enjoyed the festival. The wonderful people that made this event a success are all volunteers, and it takes a lot of giving people to successfully stage three days of fun.
Western Swing music. “The secret was it had a good dance tempo, mmpah-mm-pah, a 2/4 rhythm. The thing that Milton said was ‘If I pattern my music and make it a good polka tempo out the songs I play, lay the polka tempo just a little bit harder, I think I’ll have a good band.’ When you boil it down, it was a good simple, polka beat.”---Leon “Pappy” Selph.