A high level of glitter & glamour on Saturday in M, the party space of the Muziekgebouw. A large group of Poles celebrated ‘carnival’.
The evening was organised in honour of the second anniversary of Stichting Polski Gniazdo (Polish Nest); an organisation that wants to connect Poles from Eindhoven and The Hague with each other and with Polish culture. Whether the carnival is comparable to the Brabant carnival is unclear, but that is what they call it. In terms of dress code, it is quite different. All the women at the party are dressed in glitter dresses and the men have black outfits with gold accents. Polish hits sound from the speakers.
Pies
“For me it is very important to stay in touch with Polish culture,” says a woman who looks around beamingly and occasionally greets someone. “Especially to be able to speak my own language, to be able to eat Polish snacks.” She nods toward a table where tomato and cheese sandwiches are stacked, and round dishes of pastries are placed. Behind the buffet are the names of sponsors: a Polish roofing company and a Polish mortgage advisor.
How big exactly is the Polish community in Eindhoven and the surrounding area? Organisers Anna Raflik and Artur Olszewski will come back to that later. “This party is not only meant to bring Poles together, but also to show the Dutch how beautiful our culture is. The image they have is sometimes too one-sided.”
A woman in a gold glitter dress with a hairdo that doesn’t have a single strand out of place adds, nodding. “I think the Dutch don’t have the right image of what Poles are like. There are a lot of workers here, that’s what our image is based on. But what you don’t know is that we like things very chic, and we can party very well.”
We will soon publish a more elaborate piece on the Polish community in Eindhoven and surrounding area.
Source: www.studio040.nl
Translated by Yawar Abbas