WILBER — Early Saturday morning, Shirley Znamenacek dragged some lawn chairs to a shady spot across from the grocery store, ensuring her and her family prime spots for viewing the afternoon parade.

Znamenacek's daughters, Denise Knuppel and Delorie Case, both come home each year for the Wilber Czech Festival, which is this weekend. Both march in the Wilber-Clatonia Alumni Band (Case is the band's majorette; Knuppel plays the clarinet.)

The rest of the family waves to them from the sidelines, Znamenacek makes lots of food and her home, right in Wilber, becomes the family headquarters throughout the weekend.

Most of her family has stayed in Saline County, Znamenacek said. But Case comes from Fremont, and Knuppel comes from Fort Collins, Colo.

"That's her vacation and her meeting up with her friends," Znamenacek said as she watched the parade. "It's like a class reunion for her."

Many of those who attend the nationally known Czech festival have ties to Wilber, but many others don’t. Instead they attend out of an interest in Czech culture and history, out of a love of small-town festivals or out of sheer curiosity.

"We're just here for a day of seeing the parade and seeing stuff," said Brian Kell, a University of Nebraska-Lincoln  graduate student who also happened to be celebrating his 25th birthday on Saturday.

Kell has attended the Czech festival the past three or four years, he said. This year, the 47th year of the event, he also brought his friends, two other UNL grad students, Yanqiu Guo and Kangni Li, who are both from China.

They ate duck and pork and dumplings at the Hotel Wilber, then visited the town’s Czech museum and watched the parade, which included marching bands, polka bands on flatbed trailers pulled by pickup trucks, an array of vintage tractors, Czech Queens from across Nebraska and the United States (including Alaska) and one float that included a giant teeter-totter, an outhouse, and, inexplicably, a large stuffed bear.

The parade was their favorite part.

Norman and Joyce Michal came from Colorado for the weekend. He is of Czech descent but she is of German descent. She had never had a kolace before Saturday.

Norman Michal spent some time at the library, researching his genealogy. He visited the grave of his grandfather. The Michals also watched a historical program Friday night about Czech history, ate lots of Czech food and checked out the car show. Saturday afternoon, they planned to attend something called the Bohemian tractor pull.

Norman Michal was right in his element, his wife said.

"He loves it so — all the commotion going on and the parade."

Phil and Bernie Stephenson came all the way from Florida for the festival.

Their grandson lives in Lincoln, and they'd heard about the Czech festival for years.

So this year they decided to come.

They walked around downtown and, like just about everyone else, watched the parade.

"The tractors were wonderful," Bernie Stephenson said.

And they also did some shopping, buying Czech-themed T-shirts for an acquaintance of theirs with Czech ties.

Saturday afternoon, she still had one more thing on her list of things to do at the festival.

"My goal is to have a kolace," she said.

Reach Cara Pesek at 473-7361 or cpesek@journalstar.com.