The World Music from Slovakia (WOMUSK) platform was founded as a partner project of the World Music Festival Bratislava with the aim of promoting Slovakia’s folklore and world music scene.

It was created in 2015 from the initiative of AMITY o.z. To support the export of Slovak music. WOMUSK organized multiple showcases in “world music” genre in Slovakia and various concerts of Slovak musicians, for example at the international showcase festival Czech Music Crossroads (2015-2020), where Katka Máliková won the first prize in 2017 among 12 other bands from four countries.

The WOMUSK platform has gradually established itself in the international environment, where it actively ensures promotion at prestigious events and serves as the main contact for those interested in Slovak world music. At the most important world music festival – WOMEX, WOMUSK arranged performances of Slovak bands Pacora Trio (2015), Banda (2017), Bashavel (2020), the premiere of the documentary Heavy Heart (2018) and Slovak world music stand (2017 – 2019).

AMITY o.z. on behalf of the World Music Festival and WOMUSK maintains various partnerships, the purpose of which is to better inform international world music professionals about Slovak music scene, support our talents and integrate the Slovak scene into the international one. As part of bilateral exchanges, we enable Slovak musicians to give concerts abroad in cooperation with partners such as SORI Int’l Festival in South Korea, d’Orfeu Associação Cultural in Portugal, Showcase festival in Taiwan, Viljandi Folk Festival in Estonia and others.

We are developing reciprocity in the circulation of musicians and the support of young talents from 2022 in the Creative Europe: SOUNDS OF EUROPE and UPBEAT projects, which unite 13 to 15 foreign festivals. These and other activities aim to actively support the export of Slovak music.

In 2023, thanks to WOMUSK, Júlia Kozáková will perform at the foreign festivals Trefpunkt/Belgium, Viljandi Folk Festival/Estonia and Musicastrada/Italy. Band Varkocs will perform at Sziget Festival/Hungary and Atlantic Music Expo/Cape Verde. Noga Band will perform at the Méra Festival/Romania and Todo Mundo/Serbia. The group Alapastel will perform at the festival Alkantara/Sicily and the vocal group Neha! at the festival Aux heures d’été/France.

WOMUSK has so far released 2 compilations Best of World music from Slovakia 2014, Best of World music from Slovakia 2015-2018 and is preparing Best of World music from Slovakia 2015-2022 compilation.

AMITY and WOMUSK became partners of the MATERA – European City of Culture 2018 and Trenčín – European City of Culture 2026 projects.

For those interested, the website womusk.com offers information about Slovak performers who cooperate with the platform. It also contains an overview of clubs, festivals and publishers who offer space to the world music genre.