The first clay parade passed through the streets of Bolesławiec in August 2007. In principle, it was intended to promote the city. It was meant to be good fun for Bolesławiec residents and tourists arriving for the Festival of Ceramics. The idea for Gliniada was initiated by the Via Sudetica association. But the face of the Glinoludy became city councillor Bogusław Nowak.
The event has enormous potential and is becoming one of the most interesting attractions of the Festival of Ceramics. Gliniada’s strengths are its openness and spontaneity. The parade attracts everyone. Teenagers and mature adults naturally march in it together. There are no differences or divisions. In clay costumes, singles, pregnant women, married couples, grandparents with grandchildren, parents with children, individualists and eccentrics walk side by side. The event brings people together on many levels. People from Monar and parents with intellectually disabled children take part without inhibition. In clay costumes, everyone is close to and accepted by everyone else. Most importantly, everyone becomes unique. It can confidently be said that Gliniada develops a sense of community. It builds an urban community. It allows people to do something together for themselves and, at the same time, for the place where they live. Bolesławiec residents actively promote their city. This is not done for them by the authorities. Residents have a direct influence on enriching the Festival of Ceramics. This is Gliniada’s immeasurable value. Organizing such an undertaking involves considerable costs. And this is where the problems begin. Who is to pay for citizens promoting the city?
The Promotion Trap
In Bolesławiec, we still have unresolved problems with promotion. We still cannot clearly answer the question: should the authorities financially support private entrepreneurs who promote the city? And if so, what exactly should they be supported for, and with what amounts, so that it does not always come down to: whatever the mayor feels like giving.
Gliniada is not the only one to have fallen into this promotion trap. One example is the “Limerick Competition” organized by Agora bookshop and the Ziemia Bolesławiecka association. The event developed for four years, only to suspend operations in the year of its greatest prosperity due to a lack of funds and support from the city. The competition enjoyed enormous popularity and prestige. Its jury included professors, well-known writers and journalists. The event’s costs grew in proportion to its popularity, and the private entrepreneur was unable to finance it alone. Yet no one then emphasized so clearly that the nationwide “Limerick Competition” promoted the city.
A second example is “Blues nad Bobrem,” which promoted Bolesławiec for twenty years. Due to a lack of agreement with the city authorities, the association organizing the festival sought another location, and for the first time the workshops, competition and concerts will be held at the castle in Kliczków.
When creating Gliniada, Via Sudetica tried to avoid this problem. From the outset, the parade’s creators emphasized that promoting the city was a profitable undertaking. Gliniada, meanwhile, promotes Bolesławiec with exceptional effectiveness. They bluntly demanded that part of the money allocated to promoting the city be spent on them. The Glinoludy held out their hands for money, and the city office had to take some position. It approached the matter like a good Jew. I’ll give you something, and you’ll give me something in return. As a result of this unwritten commercial agreement, during the second and third Gliniadas the mayor appeared at the event’s high point—he married Glinoludy couples and appeared before the cameras of national television stations that had come to cover the event. In return, Gliniada received public funding.
Gliniada Entangled in Politics
The Glinoludy Parade has always had a politician among its ranks. Although nonpartisan, Bogusław Nowak (known as the founding father of Gliniada) is a councillor—a councillor who has been in opposition to the mayor since the beginning of his local-government career. It cannot be denied that handing the baton to the mayor during the event did not sit well with the councillor. But not only with him, because many Gliniada organizers share the antipathy of the nonpartisan councillor running from the Civic Platform list. The parade’s organizers, Via Sudetica, therefore began flirting with the county authorities, whose political sympathies were decidedly closer to theirs.
Funding Gliniada through political alliances is nevertheless as fragile as politicians’ sympathies in an election year. It requires caution. Especially since one of Gliniada’s leaders is councillor Nowak—a person with strong political ambitions. At the beginning of the year, he even pretended to be considering running for mayor. His enthusiasm only faded after the article “Shouts on Paryska Street” by Daniel Biernat appeared in the mayor’s newspaper. Nowak had to focus on preserving his own business. The article said that aggressive drunks frequented councillor Nowak’s supposedly cultured Piwnica Paryska restaurant, and that residents of the street were demanding that the owner’s alcohol licence be revoked to put an end to the “shouts, squeals and vomit” served to them by the establishment’s patrons.
Even if he does not run for mayor, Nowak will certainly stand for councillor. Being the face of a popular event much liked by residents will surely give him the necessary number of votes. Will this harm Gliniada? And is that what it is supposed to serve? We will see after the election and in the following years, if the event takes place.
I’ll Promote This City Just to Spite the Mayor
The great Glinoludy Parade is increasingly turning into a small troupe that travels to various events. And it no longer has anything in common with the spontaneous city parade that we have watched every August for the past three years.
In 2009, groups of a dozen or so Glinoludy began travelling to local events in Poland: a gathering of American cars, a European feast in Wrocław, and a Knights’ Tournament in Malbork (the first Glinoludy trip paid for by the hosts). Several Glinoludy even travelled to Paris, but that was more an unusual excursion than any campaign connected with promoting the city or Gliniada itself.
In 2010, a group of a dozen or so Glinoludy travelled at their own expense to the May 3 parade in Chicago. At the Polish diaspora parade, the Glinoludy, dressed in elegant gowns and wigs, made no reference to Bolesławiec apart from carrying a banner advertising our county, which of course is commendable. The group appeared at numerous places important to the Polish diaspora, promoting, among other things, a shop that sells Bolesławiec ceramics in Chicago. A letter praising the Glinoludy was submitted to the chairwoman of the City Council. Jan Krynski, owner of the “Dom itp.” shop in Chicago, wrote that the Glinoludy had caused a sensation overseas and promoted Bolesławiec and Bolesławiec ceramics. Important newspapers and internet portals wrote about them. He ended his letter with the words: “We envy you for having such a Team in your city, which can promote the city of Boleslawiec so wonderfully around the world. As they say in American, they are worth »any penny« (editor’s translation: every penny, any amount of money).”
The group paid dearly for this trip and for promoting Bolesławiec, out of its own pocket. Does marching in Chicago’s Polish diaspora parade promote our city? Of course it does. But will Bolesławiec feel the effects of this promotion in any way? How many people from Chicago will travel to Bolesławiec? It is unknown. Will entrepreneurs who personally travelled overseas gain a few more American customers? Doubtful.
Is this not once again another version of “promotion for one pen”? Only this time accompanied by a major grievance against the mayor, saying: “Look, the world wants us, and you don’t.” Chicago wants us, Paris, Schengen, but Bolesławiec has turned its back on us. This is the message conveyed by the organized journeys of the clay touring group.
Gliniada, Stand by Me
Gliniada, stay with us, stay in the city—we would like to call out in American. Do not squander yourself on small things. The Glinoludy Parade has its own community, context and home. And all of that is in Bolesławiec. And although it has initiators and originators, as well as undoubtedly people who finance Gliniada out of their own pockets, it is also a part of every one of us—the people who march and paint themselves with clay.
Via Sudetica initiated one of the most interesting attractions in our city. All the effort spent on the Glinoludy’s pointless travels could instead be used to make Gliniada firmly established in Bolesławiec. The role of the promotion department, which reports to the mayor, is to promote the city and its attractions. At tourism fairs, on posters advertising the Festival of Ceramics and in advertising spots, the Glinoludy should have their place. And pay nothing for it.
The Via Sudetica association also has the right to grants for its objectives, without ingratiating itself with those in power or fulfilling the whims of mayoral candidates. It must also look itself in the eye and clearly determine whether councillor Nowak’s involvement supports Gliniada or not. And finally, the most important question: who runs Gliniada? Councillor Nowak, the entrepreneur, or the association headed by president Krzysztof Krzemiński? Is a parade turning into a touring troupe, advertising who knows what and for what purpose, the right path?
Glinoludy, return to the city. Stay with us. Everyone needs someone to stand by them. In Gliniada’s case, that someone is the residents—the Glinoludy of Bolesławiec. They will not keep fighting for Gliniada, getting involved in power struggles and political games. But in August, when parade time comes, they will put on white outfits and cover themselves in clay. And there will be more and more of them. Because Bolesławiec truly loves Gliniada.
(editorial information ii)