Does anyone know if we can catch live Polka Music while staying Prague or Bratislava, Slovakia? If so please pass along any info you might have.

Thanks!

I've visited Prague three times, each for about a week, and have never run across or heard of polka music being played there regularly in any venue.

Reminds me of my first time in Vienna. It was during the time of the Opera Ball, and I wanted to dance. Asked everyone where I could waltz in Vienna. They all thought I was mad. No one, it seemed, danced the waltz in Vienna.

"No one, it seemed, danced the waltz in Vienna."

They do, but it is an annual huge and very fancy gala evening, not something people do every week.

There's lots of dancing in Vienna - at the Volksgarten for example.

By the way - I'm off to a nice fancy ball in Vienna next month.

Frock still to be got though.

Just slip the local Gypsy band a few notes and say "polka!"

It's for my dad...not exactly my style of music but he gets a kick out of it!

YOu probably can somewhere, but the best idea is probably to ask at the hotel you are staying at. There are polka halls around where I live in the US so those folks who like that kind of thing would know about them, but not many other people. IN Prague, I suspect this might be something more out in the burbs, if it is in the city at all. I've heard about it at some inns in more rural areas (a polka band).

I couldn't see any polka bands playing at any of the concert venues at a ticket agency. I'm sure you'll be able to buy polka CDs, and maybe there would be flyers or people would know something in one of the big CD/music shops. There is a good one right on Wenceslas Square, at the bottom--it's basically at the corner of Na Prikope. It's called Bontonland.

There is a small family-run ethnic/world music store at Beneditska 7 (which is just a little south of Dlouha, a major street in Old Town, and off Rbyna) named Pohodli. They have some Moravian and Czech folk music, and the owner is Polish, so that might be an interesting place to go and see if they know anything. It's not far from the Kotva dept. store, although when I was there last summer, that was closed as there is a lot of construction at Namesti Republicky square and that area. I think they are building some shopping mall, a big one. They even have a website
http://pohodli.com/home.php?lang=en

We went to U Kalicha where they had live Umpa music. The food was basic but very czech. We found it amusing and different although the food wasn't really to our taste. It was like being at an Oktoberfest in Prague.
http://www.pragueexperience.com/places.asp?PlaceID=363