On Sunday, July 23, 2023, the last, third folklore concert of the main part of the IFF Zagreb was held on Trg ban Jelačić. Many folklore groups from Croatia and abroad performed in front of a large audience…

As the basis of their music, the Cinkuši use the rich traditional heritage of Croatia, mostly from the Kajkavian speaking area, into which they interpolate the author’s approach and literary models and even clichés that awaken collective emotionality. They are an excellent example of “translating” traditional songs into explosive parts of punk, freak-folk, brilliant ballads or subtle combinations of waltz and cabaret with a touch of neo-folk underground. They are completely open to many metamorphoses of rock, psychedelic, jazz to traces of expressive and even chamber music…

Ivana Galić and the band held the concert “Vientos del alma” – The Winds of the Soul program of South American traditional music was inspired by the greatest Argentinian singer and activist Mercedes Sosa. The songs and compositions of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Peru and Uruguay are almost unknown to the audience of these areas. They are performed by musicians led by our best guitarist for Latin music, Darko Horvat, and academic flautist Zrinka Božičević Plavec…

This summer, the Ogenj group set the audience on fire on the Zagreb asphalt. Ogenj gathers people from Podravka full of energy, which they give at every meeting and concert. The music that Ogenj creates is a mixture of pure rock’n’roll with a touch of punk, and everything is enriched with a drinkable Kajkavian lyric. In addition to the standard instruments of a punk rock band, there are also tambourines and sometimes violins. Some compare them to local Flogging Molly, while they are not far from Mumford and the Sons either. Ballads, jumps, push-ups, landings, choral singing, bursts of energy, sweat and tears are part of every performance of Ogenj…

“Alconost of Balkan” is a project that is based exclusively on the ethno of the entire Balkans with adaptations made in a completely new way. Nina Kraljić is one of the few artists of the younger generation who strives to revive, popularize and restore the lost splendor of our cultural heritage and bring it closer to a wider audience.

Two string instruments with a different tradition of playing based on Croatian traditional music, in the hands of Filip and Tihomir, bring ethno jazz with Pannonian overtones. Top improvisations filled with folk musical motifs fully reveal the reach of both instruments – tambourine and double bass.

Programme Sako leto ima nekaj novoga, performed by the orchestra and soloists of the LADO Ensemble, seeks to present the richness and diversity of Croatian instrumental and vocal folk music and expression, as well as a diversity of traditional instruments and costumes.

“Jaman Suara” gamelan ensemble was established in 2019. on gamelan course organized in the Embassy of Indonesia in Zagreb. The ensemble had its first performances that year in cooperation with many artistic groups within the Academy of Music in Zagreb and many other.

Traditional musicians were always the ones who initiated parties, so they were often called veselnikim (the joyful ones) in certain parts of Croatia. Central Formal Event of 54th IFF shows us a wide selection of soloist traditional musical instrument and smaller groups, with traditional singers and a few dances. This enhances the diversity and the richness of traditional sound created by traditional instruments and instrumentalists who are crucial for traditional dance.

This vocal and instrumental concert with the name Kak je teško našu ljubav tajiti gives a window to rich and diverse Croatian traditional musical instruments and songs performed by Lado ensemble.

Cubismo is a band that plays energetic dance music based on afro-cubano rythms, but in their own distinctive and recognizable style which is not defined by stylistic determinants. The band cherishes improvisation based on jazz beyond comlex compositions. Band members come from Croatia, Venezuela and Cuba. Cubismo is the most famous band that plays this type of music in this region and has been on the stage for 25 years with most of original cast. By now they have released over a dozen CD-s and albums.

In line with the main theme of the Festival, and with Rijeka being declared the European Capital of Culture in 2020, this relatively short, 30-minute concert on the main festival stage, Gradec, will highlight the diversity and sound richness that the traditional instruments of Gorski Kotar, Istria and Kvarner artistically create. We will see performances of groups who also take part in the thematic programme Via the Karolina and Lujzijana historical roads to Rijeka (members of Folklore Groups from Barban, Galižana, Jelenje and Poljica), and individual artists, players of traditional instruments.

Interpreting Tamara’s unique music, exceptional musicians from her international Transhistria Ensemble skilfully and naturally fuse contemporary jazz with elements of Istrian and Mediterranean music, creating an incredible ease of expression, characteristic only of the greatest of artists. This outstanding group is famous for its amazing alchemy and almost telepathic understanding among musicians. Their performances are rich in spontaneity, innovative improvisations, freedom, humour and powerful communicativeness…

Damir Imamović is one of the most significant performers of sevdah today, introducing a new artistic spirit in the traditional folk music of Bosnia and Herzegovina. His appearance on the music scene in 2005 generated a new wave of interest in sevdah and introduced a new way of looking at the genre. He was named ‘a true sevdah revolutionary’ (sevdalinkas.com), ‘the new direction in Bosnian sevdah’ (fRoots), even ‘the king of Sevdah music’ (The Huffington Post)…

Ethno Croatia is a project realized by Jeunesses Musicales Croatia, a member of Jeunesses Musicales International (JMI), which stimulates the youth to learn about traditional music from one another and deepen their knowledge of their own traditional music culture. The project also encourages the participants to learn about the legacy of other cultures whose heirs participate in this international camp, with the help of mentors. By gathering knowledge about the musical traditions of others, young people learn about equality, tolerance and democracy.

Ethno Croatia will bring together young musicians from all around the world from 9^th to 19^th July 2019, at the International Cultural Center of Jeunesses Musicales Croatia in the beautiful Istrian town of Grožnjan, recognized as a JMI World Meeting Center. They will socialize and learn from each other about the music of the countries they come from. The camp will gather young musicians from Belgium, Denmark, Croatia, Sweden, Estonia, Zimbabwe, Spain, Finland, Jordan, Chile, England and more.

Ethno Croatia is proud to present this year’s artistic leaders, the outstanding and experienced musicians who will teach the participants and assist them in learning, arranging and creating music.

“Ethno Croatia” is a Jeunesses Musicales International (JMI) project through which young people learn about traditional music from each other and with the help of mentors and deepen their knowledge about their own musical traditions, as well as the legacy of other cultures whose heirs participate in this international camp. Through learning about the musics of others, these young people also learn about equality, tolerance and democracy.

Ethno Croatia will, in the period from July 9 to July 20, 2018, gather young musicians from all around the world at International Cultural Centre Jeunesses Musicales Croatia in Grožnjan, where they socialize and learn from each other about the music from the countries they come from. This year, the camp feature musicians from 8 countries: Sweden, Estonia, Belgium, Italy, Germany, Algeria, Croatia and Portugal.

Ethno Croatia,  is a project of the Jeunesses Musicales International (JMI) which encourages young people to educate each other about traditional music and, with the help of mentors, broaden and deepen their knowledge of their own musical culture, as well as the legacy of other cultures whose heirs are taking part in this international camp. Through learning about the musical traditions of others, young participants are gaining knowledge about equality, tolerance and democracy. In the period from July 9th to July 19 th 2017, Ethno Croatia brings young musicians together at the International Cultural Center of JMC in Grožnjan. Young people from all over the world (Belgium, Denmark, Croatia, Sweden, Estonia, Zimbabwe, Spain, Finland, Jordan, Chile, England etc.) spend time with each other and learn about the music of the countries they hail from. After partaking in workshops filled with music, dancing and socializing, the participants leave the picturesque Grožnjan and go on the Ethno on the Road tour. This year’s tour includes several Croatian towns (Grožnjan, Gornja Stubica, Slavonski Brod and Zagreb) and two festivals: Jazz is Back – BP 2017 in Grožnjan and the 51st International Folklore Festival in the Croatian capital – Zagreb.

Ethno on the road in Croatia” has been realised for some years already by the International Folklore Festival in co-operation with the summer ethno-music camp Ethno Croatia for young people in Grožnjan, as a segment of the Jeunesses Musicales International network of similar camps in Africa, Australia and Europe. The fundamental idea of the camps is the exchange of experiences and knowledge of music through mutual learning and teaching between young musicians from various countries. Each participant prepares two traditional songs or two dances from their own culture, which they then teach to the other participants during the camp’s duration. Deepening their knowledge of their own and other musics, young people also learn about the value of equality and tolerance between peoples and nations.

Ethno Croatia 2016. includes musicians from Croatia, Serbia, Estonia, Germany, Dennmark, Ireland, England and Australia. They are conducted by Maise Greenwood, violinist from UK, and Swedish musician, producer and music pedagogue Allan Skrobe.

Thanks to refinement of their music and dance traditions, along with cultural, language, ethnic and religious diversity of communities that inherit them, two island countries in South and South East Asia — Sri Lanka and Indonesia — have been for centuries the object of fascination of the Western world. Long-standing exchanges with Europe and other parts of the world, although under the colonial relationships, the differences in work and life from one island to another, and between rural and urban environments, have also contributed to cultural diversity. Today, however, due to growing social networking, compression of time and space, migration, travel and social alliances created out of shared affi nities, we witness the process of commuting the former distant, far-off cultural practices into our own immediate experiences. Musics that ring in the imagination the ocean and wave the tea plantations have been thus anchored elsewhere, including Slovenia and Croatia, Ljubljana and Zagreb.

Ethno on the Road in Croatia” has been realised for some years already by the International Folklore Festival in co-operation with the summer ethno-music camp Ethno Croatia for young people in Grožnjan, as a segment of the Jeunesses Musicales International network of similar camps in Africa, Australia and Europe. The fundamental idea of the camps is the exchange of experiences and knowledge of music through mutual learning and teaching between young musicians from various countries. Each participant prepares two traditional songs or two dances from their own culture, which they then teach to the other participants during the camp’s duration. Deepening their knowledge of their own and other musics, young people also learn about the value of equality and tolerance between peoples and nations.

Ethno Croatia 2015. includes musicians from Belgium, Denmark, England, France, Croatia, Slovenia, Scotland, Sweden and Tunis.

Although ethno / world music concerts – ethno being a synonym of a sort of the more known international term world music – have been a regular part of the International Folklore Festival Zagreb only since 1997, their real beginning was the concert „Nadahnute baštinom/Inspired by Heritage“ which, at the 28th International Folklore Festival Zagreb, presented the work of singers Lidija Bajuk and Dunja Knebl. The same year, 1994, independently from the Festival, the Ethnoambient Live concert took place in the Zagreb club Gjuro II, where the originators of a sort of the Croatian ethno scene presented themselves to the Zagreb audience – Lidija Bajuk, Dunja Knebl, Andrija Maronić and the band Legen. This concert marked the beginning of a systematic use of the term ethno for denoting the music of these musicians, and later all music which was, in its approach, sound and inspiration, similar to theirs. The specific quality of the term „ethno music“ lies in the fact that the musicians themselves consciously chose it to describe their work, i.e. to emphasize the difference from other (earlier, but also contemporary) approaches to the interpretation and presentation of Croatian traditional music.

Ethno on the Road in Croatia has been realised for some years already by the International Folklore Festival in co-operation with the summer ethno-music camp Ethno Croatia for young people in Grožnjan, as a segment of the Jeunesses Musicales International network of similar camps in Sweden, Belgium, the FYR of Macedonia, France, the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Slovenia and Uganda. For years now, the Grožnjan camp has been successfully headed up and organised by the Swedish musician and producer, Allan Skrobe, and the Croatian musician Lidija Dokuzović. The fundamental idea of the camps is the exchange of experiences and knowledge of music through mutual learning and teaching between young musicians from various countries. Each participant prepares two traditional songs or two dances from their own culture, which they then teach to the other participants during the camp’s duration.

Musicians and music groups from Armenia, Belgium, France, Spain, Sweden, Croatia, will be taking part in Ethno Croatia 2013.

Ethno on the Road in Croatia has been realised for some years already by the International Folklore Festival in co-operation with the summer ethno-music camp Ethno Croatia for young people in Grožnjan, as a segment of the Jeunesses Musicales International network of similar camps in Sweden, Belgium, the FYR of Macedonia, France, the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Slovenia and Uganda. For years now, the Grožnjan camp has been successfully headed up and organised by the Swedish musician and producer, Allan Skrobe, and the Croatian musician Lidija Dokuzović. The fundamental idea of the camps is the exchange of experiences and knowledge of music through mutual learning and teaching between young musicians from various countries.

Ethno Croatia 2011 gathers musicians and music ensembles from Belgium, Croatia, France, Mongolia, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and Tanzania. They are lead by experienced mentors – Allan Skrobe, Swedish musician and producer, and Lidija Dokuzović, Croatian singer in the “Afion” ensemble and leader of female vocal groups “Čipkice” and “Le Zbor”. All participants need to prepare two traditional songs or dances typical of their culture, which they then teach to other participants of the Grožnjan’s camp. Each participant prepares two traditional songs or two dances from their own culture, which they then teach to the other participants during the camp’s duration.

July 15th, 2009, Ban Josip Jelačić Square, “Liverpool Youngsters”, Zambia

The title of this year’s world music concert, coined from the words dialect and ethno, discloses its other component – dialect. Relying on one of the topics of this year’s Festival – the one dedicated to Croatian dialects and local speeches – ethno music with kajkavian features has been made the centre of the concert. Precisely the kajkavian dialect music was the starting point of inspiration for musicians who in 1994 became the founders of the Croatian ethno / world music scene.

This year the opportunity to present their music to the European audience has been given to a group of young musicians called Body, Mind & Soul from the town of Mzuzu, northern Malawi. Their performance at the International Folklore Festival Zagreb will present the outcome of their musical explorations a unique musical style which they call voodjazz and describe as a subtle mix of traditional rhythms with a jazzy feel, a musical bridge between Malawian cultures past and present.

The Malawian seven-person band formed in 1999. After starting out as a reggae band, they turned to the rich traditional music this landlocked state is known for. Konga Vibes won the prestigious Music Crossroads Southern Africa Festival Award in 2006. A year later they embarked on a groundbreaking tour of Europe. Their vibrant live performances were first seen in Europe in June and July 2007, as they performed in cities like Amsterdam, Brussels and Zagreb.

Vocal styles of Sardinia, Georgia and Croatia

Su Cussertu Cùccuru ‘e Lunas, Sardinia – Italy / Klapa Nostalgija, Croatia / Sakhioba, Georgia

19th July 2006.,Ban Josip Jelačić Square, “Afrikali”, Tanzania

19th July 2006., Gradec “Inspired by Medjimurje heritage”, Teta Liza, Croatia / Lidija Bajuk Trio, Croatia / Dunja Knebl and Afion, Croatia

20th July 2006., Gradec Aicha Kouyate & Mandinka Band, Guinea

20th July 2005., Klovićevi dvori Gallery – Atrium, “Sounds and Echoes of Ireland”; The Skelligs, Croatia / The Flook, Great Britain

21st July 2005., Tvornica, “Sounds and Echoes of Ireland”; Eamonn de Barra, Ireland / The Slip, Croatia / Ciotog, Croatia / Belfast Food, Croatia

21st July 2004., Gradec, “What can bagpipes do”; Mojmir Novaković and Kries / Bagpipers: Pavo Gadányi (Hungary) / Ante Mucić Antas (BH) / Željko Keža (BH) / Marinko Dekanić(Croatia) / Gajdaški sastav Andora Végha (Hungary-Croatia) / Stuart Cassells (UK) / Schwäbische Dudelsackmusik(Germany) / Stefče Stojkovski (Macedonia) / József Kozák’s Bagpipe Group (Hungary) / Cuncordia a launeddas (Italy)

22nd July 2004., Gradec, Traditions of India; Ana Milošević Suryawanshi – Indian Classical Dance Kathak / Odissi Troupe, India

16th July 2003., Gradec, “Istrian Soundscapes”; Tamara Obrovac Transhistria Ensemble, Croatia

17th July 2003., Gradec, Musics in Minority–Minorities in Music; Jewseri, Zagreb, Croatia / Helene Eriksen, Germany / Çiftetelli, Austria / Aicha Kouyate & Mandinka Band, Germany

17th July 2002., Gradec, Lidija Bajuk and Paganini bend, Croatia

18th July 2002., Tvornica “With the Sound of Percussion”; Rhythm Tribe, Croatia / Leymer, Iran / Hinokiya, Japan / Sri Lankan Dance Ensemble, Sri Lanka / The BT Melodians Steel Orchestra, UK / The White Cockatoo, Australia

18th July 2001., Gradec, Doromb, Croatia / Bodan Arsovski & Ezgija Orchestra, Macedonia

1th July 2001., Gradec, Arche’ (Gruppo Internazionale di Musica Etnica), Italy / Gjallarhorn, Finland

19th July 2000., Tvornica Zoran Predin & Mar Django Quartet, Slovenia

20th July 2000., Gradec, Teta Liza and Cinkuši, Croatia