ÚĽUV Master Craftsmen Days 2023

The Centre for Folk Art Production (ÚĽUV) has a mission to safeguard and develop traditional crafts and home-made production in Slovakia. Both in the past and today, it focuses mainly on looking for, mapping out and protecting crafts that are dying out; it then develops them by means of various activities, connecting the information and skills of the best producers with the knowledge of ethnologists and the vision of designers. One of the important activities is the presentation of traditional crafts to the general public. Since 1990, it has been organising the now popular event The ÚĽUV Master Craftsmen Days.

Its 33^rd edition will take place on the first weekend of September (2nd – 3rd September 2023) in Bratislava’s Old Town. The central theme of the festival is crafting from plant based fibers, which is also the focus of ÚĽUV´s activities this year. Visitors can look forward to experiencing the products of more than a hundred craftsmen from all over Slovakia bringing a variety of crafts – blacksmithing, tinkering, wood carving, wood splitting, pottery, embroidery, leatherwork, basketry, lace making, lace bobbin weaving, weaving on looms, decorating easter eggs, painting on glass, making musical instruments and many more.

There will be a zone dedicated to weaving demonstrations using natural fibers such as straw, willow wicker, broadleaf cattail, bark, or pine roots. An essential part of the festival will be the ÚĽUV´s School of Crafts with creative workshops for children. The atmosphere of the event will be enriched by vibrant cultural programme consisting of both music and dance performances. Food enthusiasts will enjoy traditional Slovak cousine zone.

The ÚĽUV Master Craftsmen Days festival is a proof of the meaningfulness of ÚĽUV’s efforts in preserving and further developing traditional crafts and folk art production. It presents the best masters of traditional crafts who continue to bring the heritage of our ancestors closer to the current generations in a natural, living form.

The Slovak Commission for UNESCO took over the patronage of the event.