The Horse Takes Centre Stage: a Snapshot of the 27th Folk Toy Festival in Stryszawa

On the first weekend of June 2024, Stryszawa in southern Poland celebrated the wooden toy for the 27th time. This year’s theme was the horse, a toy made in this area since the 19th century. My photos are only a snapshot: just under twenty minutes of Saturday afternoon, roughly 3:45 to 4:05 pm. A short walk between the stalls and a moment by the stage.

The horse takes centre stage

At the fair, horses were everywhere: on rockers, on wheels, on a string to pull along, painted with flowers and dots, with manes of real horsehair. Each one slightly different, because each is painted by hand.

The festival goes hand in hand with a folk toy competition. This year makers entered 62 pieces (33 participants), and the competition exhibition opened on Friday at the Beskid Wooden Toy Centre.

Birds, roosters and storks

Next to the horses, birds ruled. Painted wooden birds are Stryszawa’s trademark: colourful roosters, parrots, woodpeckers and tits perched on twigs, storks sat in their nests.

Music and games

Children’s and youth bands in regional dress played on stage. On the grass nearby you could try old-fashioned games and ride wooden toys. A passing shower brought out the umbrellas but did not drive the audience away.

Poland’s oldest toy-making centre

Wooden toys have been made around Żywiec and Sucha since the first half of the 19th century. Villages such as Stryszawa, Lachowice, Kuków, Koszarawa and Pewel Wielka form Poland’s oldest toy-making centre, known as the Żywiec-Sucha centre. Whole families made toys, and the skills passed from generation to generation. Among the oldest forms are horse-drawn carriages, cradles and rattles. Today most of the makers live in the Stryszawa municipality.

In 2016 Żywiec-Sucha toy making was entered on Poland’s National List of Intangible Cultural Heritage. Stryszawa also has a Toy Maker’s House, opened during the 22nd Folk Toy Festival.

Sources

• Stryszawa Municipality: 27th Folk Toy Festival (in Polish)
• sucha24.pl: 27th Toy Festival (in Polish)