Prague Balfolk Weekend

ba.fnu project started in 2009, as the first Czech bal folk band combining traditional dance rhythms with samples, loops and other electronic doings.

Now it covers most of the general bal folk standards as scottishes, mazurkas, cercles, bourrées, breton dances and more.

Voice, accordion, violin, strings. Songs of salty France. Bloody ballads and even bloodier romances.

Acoustic trio with sharp and tender music inspired by France. Songs in French and own instrumental compositions, folk tradition spiced with a pinch of jazz. Modern folklore as performed at festivals and dances from Nantes to Strasbourg.

Balsam is a Poland-based balfolk trio of friendship and family. First and foremost, they play for the dancers.

With energetic chapelloises, unifying hanter-dros, romantic waltzes and intimate mazurkas in their repertoire, they compose and arrange European dance forms with respect for the traditional pulses and with bravely creative approach.

Balsam goes its own original way. They combine dance music with self-written poetry sung in Polish, which results in a subtle, emotionally honest and heartwarming journey both for the dancers and the listeners away from the dance floor.

Trad and balfolk music from different parts of Europe. Fresh mix of selected tunes and instruments, old and new, seasoned with a flavour of drones.

The journey begins in 2019, at the Grand Bal de l'Europe in Gennetines. The two lads decided to invent a musical project for themselves and enter it on an open stage.

It was a memorable triumph, and all their friends were enthusiastic. Surprised but happy, the group decided to take themselves seriously.

Since their beginnings, they've performed over 200 dancefloors, concert terraces and brightly-lit lounges.

Geronimo is the solo project of Jeroen Geerinck.

He is a musician and record producer active in the Belgian folk scene. Jeroen is mostly known for adding a signature style of energetic playing to the sound of the bands that he plays in.

As a record producer and studio engineer he also has a great deal of experience in creating folk albums and always looks to mix in new flavors.

Lyradanz is an Italian Folk Trio which combines peculiar instrumental timbres, the Celtic Harp and the Bowed Psaltery, along with the Guitar and the three voices.

The band engages and involves the audience in a musical trip through original compositions in folk style, blending stylistic features of the Irish, French, Breton and Italian musical tradition.

The result is a musical metissage which - though sung in Italian – refers to the European folk as a whole, with several influences also from the Early Music and the Néo-Trad genres.

The use of fresh and refined arrangements make Lyradanz’ music enjoyable to a broad audience, who appreciates above all the smooth transition from soft and delicate sonorities with the three voice-polyphonic texture, to a punchy rhythm, sometimes obsessive and vibrant.

Marina Lazar is a classically trained pianist who started to dance balfolk during her studies at HAMU in Prague.

When the covid pandemic hit, she started to compose her own music at home, for the cd Quarantunes / Karantóny by balfolk.cz, and since then she added many more songs to her repertoire, performing them occasionally at bals and jams.

Please enjoy her original dancable music for solo piano, with a slight classical twist.

On one place, on a tribal rhythm, these virtuosic untamed make fire where they play. Autonomic and very mobile, a real concentration of energy, this generous trio breaks with conventions, is a joy to see and makes all the audience dance.

TriBoT is the sum of the influences and sonorities gathered from different situation: from old Piedmontese ballrooms to big festivals, from circoli to rock stages, looking at new sonorities but with roots firmly on the Trad music.