KROATIJA

Folklor grup BIZOVAC
 Group leader Zvonimir Vuković

The ensemble “Bizovac” (Bizovac is a name of a municipality of  Croatia) was founded in 1968 right after the establishment of the association “Farmers’ Union“, which has later become the Bizovac Association for Culture and Arts. The mission of the organisation and the folklore group is to safeguard and foster the rich heritage of the region, traditional crafts and customs. The community of Bizovac Municipality (97,5 percents of it are Croatians) of the Osijek-Baranja region is greatly concerned with the preservation of craftsmanship and wearing habits of their splendid national costumes, performance art of ancient songs and ritual circle dances accompanied by tambura (a long-necked four-string instrument, which tradition in the Balkans arrived from Turkey) music. Tambura became very popular in Croatia and is considered a national music instrument. The ensemble‘s performances are accompanied by a group of several tamburas and other string instruments („tamburitza-orchestra“).

The national costumes of the Bizovac ensemble are extraordinary rich and beautiful. Women wear many layers of skirts, which are quite short in comparison to outfits in other Croatian regions, but wide. Clothes are richly embroidered. Women embroider their clothes in gold ducats. Heads are adorned with handmade garlands embroidered with lilies. The clothing traditions implied that men wore white trousers and shirts every day, while on weekends they used to dress in elegant embroidered waistcoats. Such costumes were worn in the Bizovac region until the middle of the 20th century.

The folklore ensemble “Bizovac” travels a lot and eagerly presents the traditional culture of the region. The audiences and participants of folklore festivals in Germany, Poland, France, Italy, Bulgaria, the Netherlands, Hungary, Macedonia and other states have all admired the Bizovac ensemble‘s performances.