The international Festival Akademická Nitra 2025 will feature performances by eleven folklore ensembles
19.06.2025
Folklore From Slovakia, Hawaii, India, and More to Enchant at the 47th Akademická Nitra Festival in 2025.
Traditional folk music, dance, and costumes from Slovakia and around the world—including Hawaii, India, Bulgaria, Poland, and Serbia—will take center stage at the 47th edition of the international festival of academic folklore ensembles, Akademická Nitra 2025.
The festival will be held from July 6 to 9, organized by the Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra in cooperation with the Ministry of Education, Research, Development and Youth of the Slovak Republic. Co-organizers include the City of Nitra and the Nitra Self-Governing Region. The event is held under the auspices of the President of the Slovak Republic, Peter Pellegrini. The festival is supported with public funding from the Slovak Arts Council.
Lovers of traditional folk music, songs, and dances can look forward to a rich and diverse program. According to Festival Director Agáta Krausová, six Slovak academic ensembles will perform: Ekonóm, Hornád, Mladosť, Poľana, Trnafčan, and the home ensemble Zobor. A special treat for the audience will be the exotic Hawaiian group Ahuna Ohana and the Indian Rajasthan Folk Heritage Society. The festival will also welcome Bulgaria’s National School of Arts Dobri Hristov Dance Ensemble, the Song and Dance Ensemble of the Warsaw University of Technology from Poland, and Serbia’s Sonja Marinković Ensemble of National Dances and Songs.
The festival will open with a vibrant parade on the first day through the streets of Nitra. Folk dancers and singers in traditional costumes will march through the pedestrian zone to Svätopluk Square, creating a colorful and musical spectacle. In the evening, there will be an attempt to set a national record for the largest group performance of the folk song “Tečie voda od Zobora.” An official from the Slovak Records organization will be present to document the event.
The core of the festival will feature two competitive evenings on July 7 and 8, followed by a grand gala performance on July 9, all hosted at the Andrej Bagar Theatre. The performances will be judged by a panel of experts in folklore: Barbora Morongová, Director of the Department of Living Heritage and Culture of Disadvantaged Communities; ethnomusicologist Peter Obuch from the Center of Traditional Culture in Myjava; Igor Holováč, lecturer at the Department of Dance Creation at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava; and dance pedagogue Balázs Bogdán, MA.
Akademická Nitra 2025 promises to be a vibrant celebration of cultural heritage, artistic talent, and international friendship through folklore.
