Wilber Czech Festival

Check out the 2012 Czech Festival highlight video

Since I moved to Nebraska I’ve always wanted to go to the Czech Festival and for various reasons have never gone. This year we got to go and it was awesome. I’ve never been to this type of festival before, filled with so much culture, passion, nice people, and great food. It’s in a small town called Wilber, which is about 40 miles south of Lincoln. Both the Czech Festival and Hotel Wilber are Nebraska Passport stops this year.

We went on the Friday evening of the three-day festival. When we first got to town we checked out the fabulous Hotel Wilber. Here they had an

amazing line-up of homemade Czech food. We weren’t quite hungry yet so we headed out and got to watch the Children’s parade.

Photo: Hotel Wilber is a historical landmark.

I loved all the outfits and smiles. Everyone just seems so happy in Wilber and visitors to this Festival have a great time. Wilber’s population is around 2,000, but during Czech Fest, around 40,000 people come to town.

Photos: Children’s Parade

After the Children’s parade we got to interview the Mayor, Roger Chrans, before he played in the Alumni Band. You can see part of his interview in the video above.

Photos: Right, the Wilber-Clatonia Alumni Band and left, kids dancing. Mayor Chrans is in the black vest.

It was awesome seeing everyone dance to the polka and waltz songs. After listening to the Czech Alumni Band we were finally hungry so we made our way back to the Hotel Wilber. There are plenty of other places to eat, all along the streets – and not just Czech food either. We chose the Wilber Hotel because they were so nice when we first stopped in, there was air conditioning, and the food looked and smelled amazing.

We couldn’t decide what to get since we’ve never had Czech food. We shared a dinner of pork and then we got an extra plate of just the other two meats – pork sausage, called klobashy, and duck. The dinners came with all homemade foods: rye bread, applesauce, dumplings and gravy, sauerkraut, kolache, and we had to try the Czech beer. It was fabulous. My favorite meat was the pork. Tim liked all three and our plate was empty when we left. I’m now obsessed with Czech dumplings and gravy and also the kolaches.

Photos: Delicious homemade Czech food and beer.

Jana Nicholson and her sister, Pam Zajick, run the hotel and make all the food. She told us that they made over 500 dozen, yes 500 DOZEN kolaches for the entire weekend. You can also buy kolaches separately at the hotel, you don’t have to stay and eat a whole meal. My favorite kind had cream cheese in it – duh. It was moist and delicious.

While we were eating dinner we were lucky enough to get to visit with the President of the Nebraska Czechs of Wilber, Charlie Keller. He told us stories of years past and also said to watch out for the strong Czech beer – which is what he drinks. He couldn’t believe that Tim and I had never had duck gizzard or hearts… we promised that we didn’t need to try them but I can tell you that my German/Norwegian dad is salivating all the way from Washington state reading this story. We’ll have to have my parents visit for Czech Fest, they would love it. It’s like stepping into a little European town for the weekend.

Photo: Posing with Charlie Keller, President of Nebraska Czechs of Wilber

Along with having amazing food, the Hotel Wilber is also a historic landmark. The building was built in 1895 and it’s now owned by the Nebraska Czechs of Wilber. There are 11 hotel rooms and they are sponsored and decorated by different local families. We couldn’t tour the rooms during the Festival because all of the Czech queens and royalty were staying there. Underneath the hotel there’s a cool bar called the Czech Cellar. It’s really quaint and feels like you’re in a cellar. You can go up the back stairs to the huge outdoor beer garden area with live music during the Festival.

Photos: The Czech Cellar bar is underneath the Hotel Wilber.

We wandered outside to the beer garden and enjoyed the polka and waltz music played by Barry Boyce Band. Everyone was just really nice and having a great time. We will make a tradition of heading to Czech Fest every year.