There is a saying, scratch a Czech, underneath you will find a musician. A Czech beer festival would not be complete without music. Our festival shall feature live rock, pop, world music, polka, as well as country & folk represented by our special guest Jan Vančura & Plavci, to whom I would like to extend a special welcome. There is a long history of inspiration of Czech music by American music. Antonín Dvořák’s New World Symphony is the most prominent example. The Czech country music scene with a rich and long tradition has obvious roots in the United States as well. When I was growing up, the first albums of The Rangers (later Plavci) from 1960s were my favorite recordings. Through this band’s in interpretation of American country music classics with Czech lyrics I was able to get at least in my imagination behind the Iron Curtain, to sail on the Sloop John B., get to the Rocky Top in Tennessee, watch the Blue Moon of Kentucky shining, admire beauties of the Colorado and Shanandoah rivers, feel like the King of the Road and travel Five Hundred Miles away from home to the Cotton Fields down in Louisiana. I have also enjoyed its interpretations of Czech folk songs as well as its original repertoire. I hope that you will like the “Rangers – Plavci musical collection” too. Jan Vančura celebrates his 70th birthday this month. I am grateful to him and his colleagues that they kindly agreed to come celebrate this special occasion with us.

Please allow me to thank those, who made this festival possible, starting with the founders and main bearers of the new tradition of Czech Beer Festivals in Chicago, Ted Polashek, Bill Prince and other members of the Chicagoland Czech-American Community Center. I am proud of the unprecedented number of Czech-American organizations, which support this project. Many thanks to the Prague Committee of Chicago Sister Cities International, Sokol Tábor, Sokol Spirit, Sokol Stickney, and Theatre Bohemia who joined the project as official partners this year as well as CzechTrade, Krušovice Brewery, United Moravian Societies, Moravian Cultural Society, Dobrovský Club, Czech Mission, T. G. Masaryk School, Czechoslovak American Congress, Bohemian Lawyers´ Association, Friends of Bohemian National Cemetery, Bohemian Wings and Krajanské radio that support the project as well. I am very grateful to BOHO-Bohemian House, The Ambassador Public House and Sokol Tabor for hosting the events in their premises. The festival would clearly not be possible without the generous support of Bernard, BrouCzech, Czechvar, Pilsner Urquell, Praga, Becherovka, Jelínek, and Mattoni. The cultural program was made possible by the official airline of the festival LOT – Polish Airlines. I greatly appreciate the generous support of Mr. Edward Dellin, chairman of the Prague Committee of Chicago Sister Cities International, and Mr. Ray Capek, board member of the Committee, as well as the Czech - North American Chamber of Commerce and Culture. Last but not least, I would like to thank my colleagues from the Consulate General, particularly Consul Tomáš Trnka, Ms. Martina East and Ms. Jana Šáchová. Czech Beer Festival Chicago 2017 received financial support as a Project of Economic Diplomacy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic.

Czechs currently rank #1 in beer consumption per capita among all nations. Approximately 125,000 people claimed Czech ancestry in the last Illinois census. To me, the current popularity of beer in Chicagoland also
seems remarkably high. I wonder if the local presence of Czech genes has not anything to do with this phenomenon, and if the presence is not even stronger than the census suggests.

Enjoy the Czech Beer Festival Chicago 2017! Na zdraví!