Here in the Southeastern US we’re quite used to bluegrass events, including instructional camps and clinics. Seeing the same happen in other parts of the world always fascinates me.

It seems the main (only?) such event in the Czech Republic recently concluded. The 13th Annual Petr Brandejs Band Workshop provided instruction for over 100 students on guitar, 3-finger banjo, old-time banjo, mandolin, dobro, and bass.

The European Bluegrass Blog reports that plans are already underway for two workshops next year. One in Czech and one in Norway.

Petr Brandejs is already working on the next workshop, to be held in Novy Jicin (CZ) in March 2009, and another in Ris??r, Norway, in July.

If you visit this Czech TV station website, you’ll see a small rectangularly shaped box with some text in it, the first word being “Video.” Clicking either link in that box will open what appears to be a 3 minute news segment featuring the workshop, with lots of banjos and other bluegrass instruments getting plenty of screen time. The two links are to the same video. The first link is a larger version that weighs in at 69MB, while the second link is a lower quality version that is a mere 8MB.