The groundwork for Dream Lights, the 2013 Kosciuszko Festival, is being laid. Months of planning will help to ensure that the seventh and final Kosciuszko festival will be a triumph.
One of the highlights of the festival will be an historic Centenary Mass on Mount Kosciuszko. For the festival director, Ernestyna Skurjat-Kozek, celebrating this Mass is a logical, as well as historic, move.
“Mount Kosciuszko, discovered by Paul Edmund Strzeleki, is not just a tourist object. It’s also a place with spiritual meaning. And it has been for a long time,” Ernestyna says. “Before WWI, a group of Australian priests (on holiday in the now non-existent Kosciuszko Hotel) decided to celebrate Mass on Mount Kosciuszko and from the summit bless the whole of Australia.
“Bogusia Filip, Krzysztof Malek and I found some information about this historic event over a year ago in the heritage church in Moonbah near Jindabyne. And the idea of organising a Mass on the summit of the mountain, to mark a century from when the first Mass was held in 1913, was born straight away.”
Another set of highlights will be performances by Roy Eaton, a famous and award-winning American pianist, who is getting to know Australia, its people and its history before the festivities.
“Great leaders can make a difference. Kosciuszko in America. Strzelecki in Australia. Both Polish. Both visionary in their determination to abolish racial discrimination in their time (18th and 19th centuries). A vision still in process,” Roy says. “We look forward to celebrating this vision with our Aboriginal brothers and sisters and Polish benefactors at the Kosciuszko festival next weekend.”
To visit the official festival website, click here. To find out more about previous Kosciuszko festivals, click here.
A meeting with an Aboriginal family (left to right): Ernestyna Skurjat-Kozek, Auntie Rae and Roy Eaton 
A friendly handshake with the American Ambassador: Roy Eaton (left) and Jeffrey L. Bleich (right). 
A meeting with the festival organisers (from right): Andrzej Kozek, Roy Eaton and Ernestyna Skurjat-Kozek. 
A message from Premier Barry O’Farrell 
A message from Cardinal George Pell 
A message from Michael Ebeid, the CEO and Managing Director of SBS
The following links to various (external) websites detail preparations for the festival:
19/02/2013
Offer of accomodation with Lajkonik during the festival
Published on Puls Polonii
Language: English
17/02/2013
Roy Eaton meets with an Aboriginal family
Published on Puls Polonii
Language: English
17/02/2013
Roy Eaton’s impressions from Canberra and Sydney before the festival
Published on Puls Polonii
Language: English
13/02/2013
Wet weather contingencies and best wishes from NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell
Published on Puls Polonii
Language: English and Polish
12/02/2013
Updated program and best wishes from Cardinal Pell
Published on Puls Polonii
Language: English
12/02/2013
Special guest Roy Eaton is welcomed to Australia
Published on Puls Polonii
Language: English
12/02/2013
Thank you to Lindsay Burge for organising Canberra gigs for Roy Eaton
Published on Puls Polonii
Language: English
11/02/2013
A Mass under the Strzelecki Statue on the last day of the festival
Published on Puls Polonii
Language: Polish
08/02/2013
An interview on SBS Radio; best wishes from the Managing Director of SBS
Published on Puls Polonii; from SBS Radio
Language: Polish and English
04/02/2013
An outline of preparations for the historic Centenary Mass on Mount Kosciuszko
Published on Puls Polonii
Language: Polish
04/02/2013
An invitation to bus-pool with the Polonia group
Published on Puls Polonii
Language: Polish
01/02/2013
“Why the last one?” An interview with the festival director, Ernestyna Skurjat-Kozek
Published on Puls Polonii, from SBS Radio
Language: Polish
31/01/2013
Roy Eaton performs at the Multicultural Festival
Published on Puls Polonii
Language: English
30/01/2013
An invitation to bus-pool with the Polonia group
Published on Puls Polonii
Language: Polish
27/01/2013
An historic Mass-related article from 1913
Published on Puls Polonii
Language: English
19/01/2013
Celebrating Freedom and Friendship: an advertisement for the festival
Published on Link to Poland
Language: English
18/01/2013
The clarinet quartet Claribel makes its way to Australia
Published on Puls Polonii
Language: English
13/01/2013
The Zayazd ensemble makes its way to Australia
Published on Puls Polonii
Language: Polish
10/01/2013
Draft festival program
Published on Puls Polonii
Language: English
2013
Festival promoted on Australian travel guide
Published on Travel Oz Info
Language: English
14/12/2012
The director of the festival about the festival
Published on Puls Polonii; originally published in the Tygodnik Polski
Language: Polish
12/2012
A pilgrimage to Jindabyne
Published in the Tygodnik Polski newspaper
Language: Polish
07/12/2012
Ernestyna Skurjat-Kozek, the director of the festival, writes about preparations for Dream Lights
Published on Puls Polonii
Language: Polish
26/11/2012
Thank you to the Blum Foundation
Published on Puls Polonii
Language: Polish
25/10/2012
The festival organisers meet with Bishop Porteous
Published on Kosciuszko Heritage
Languages: English and Polish
03/07/2012
Festival on government tourist website
Published on Kosciuszko Heritage
Languages: English and Polish
21/6/2012
Initial vision for the 2013 Kosciuszko festival
Published on Kosciuszko Heritage
Languages: English and Polish
The following links to various (external) websites present events related to the festival:
11/02/2013
A video featuring Roy Eaton performing at the Multicultural Festival in Canberra
Published on YouTube
Language: English
09/02/2013
Photographs featuring Roy Eaton performing at the Multicultural Festival in Canberra
Published on Facebook
Language: English