ÚĽUV Craftsmen days

The largest urban festival of traditional Slovak crafts, ÚĽUV Craftsmen days 2025, will take place from 6 September to 7 September 2025 on Hviezdoslavo Square, Rybné Square and Panská Street in front of Bibiana in Bratislava’s Old Town.

Thousands of small and large visitors will stream through the entrance gates at Hviezdoslav Square and Rybné Square on both days of the festival. Every year they come to experience the unique atmosphere of the event, which gives them the opportunity to touch the craft and admire its diversity, to broaden their horizons, to awaken the unknown in themselves and through the personal stories of craftsmen to pay tribute to their work and life journeys.

You will see with your own eyes crafts such as blacksmithing, tinkering, wood carving, wood splitting, wood carving, pottery, embroidery, leather making, basket making, lace making, loom weaving, Easter egg decorating, glass painting, musical instrument making and many others.

In Bratislava’s Old Town, on September 6 and 7, 2025 (Saturday and Sunday), from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., a hundred manufacturers will present their craftsmanship, admired by everyone regardless of age. They will offer their original products and at the same time demonstrate a variety of traditional crafts – from tinkering, woodcarving, pottery, weaving on looms, bobbin lace, felting to decorating Easter eggs and gingerbread houses, and many others – passed down from generation to generation.

The cultural program entitled Craft in Notes in the Gazebo will be complemented by a live broadcast from Rybné námestie on a large screen – you will be able to watch crafts and production processes in a unique connection with traditional music, singing and dancing.

On Saturday at 4:00 p.m., we will pay tribute to the new masters of folk art production for the year 2025 on stage – this title is awarded to the most outstanding personalities from the ranks of traditional craftsmen. This year too, it will be awarded to producers who, through their work, masterfully preserve and develop unique elements of our cultural heritage.

At Rybne Square, visitors can observe selected traditional crafts up close: spinning an oversized clay jug, casting bells, making a fujara, a Chilean hat, forged Easter eggs, blueprints, processing sheep wool and Angora fur, turning wood, weaving from a bat, forging sculptures, or weaving a wicker basket. This zone will also feature craft clubs operating at the ÚĽUV Regional Crafts Center in Bratislava (Priadky, Vretienko, Džarek).

On Panská Street in front of Bibiana, popular craft workshops of the ÚĽUV Crafts School, which has been included in the UNESCO List of Good Practices for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage since last year, will once again be located.

The character of the festival will be completed by gastro zones with dishes of traditional Slovak cuisine.

Program 2025:

Hviezdoslavovo Square

Traditional Crafts Fair
Saturday, Sunday | 10:00 – 18:00
exterior exhibition “Celebrating craft. 80 years”
stage / CULTURAL PROGRAM Craft in the notes
Theme, script, direction: Katarína Babčáková
Moderators: Michal Slanička, Tibor Jánoška

Saturday, 6. 9. 2025

10:30 opening of the festival, speeches by the Director General of the Slovak Union of Craftsmen, the Secretary General of the Slovak Commission for UNESCO and the Mayor of the Bratislava district of Staré Mesto

10:45 live broadcast: spinning on a pottery wheel / Ján Viglaš

DFS Magdalénka from Modra / Uncle črípkár is coming!, Master Kalafúz and the Pottery Elves, dance school for children

11:30 live broadcast: processing sheep wool / Viera Kranz

FSk Javorina from Torysiek / At parties in Toryskoch

12.15 live broadcast: casting a bell / František Bodó

FSk Kriváň z Východná / shepherd songs and dances from Východná

13.00 live broadcast: dyeing a blueprint, OZ Farbiareň / Matej Rabada

FSk Javorina z Toryskoch / At the vesilu in Toryskoch

13.45 live broadcast: making a fujara / Ľuboš Straka

fujara players Tomáš Fekiač, Milan Ďurica, Ján Sekereš / fujara notes from Podpoľanie

14.30 live broadcast: wood turning / Michal Hanula

FSk Kriváň z Východná / songs during forest work and dances from Východná

16.00 ceremonial awarding of the title “master of folk artistic production”

musical program: SĽUK

Sunday, 7. 9. 2025

11.30 festival opening

11.45 live broadcast: making a Chilean hat / Ľubica Chlebová

FSk Tekovania from Starý Tekov / songs and dances from Chilean villages of the Tekov region

12.30 live broadcast: ironed Easter eggs / Miroslav Homola

FS Ekonóm from Bratislava / spring dances and pair dances from central Slovakia

13.15 live broadcast: weaving from a bat / Eva Horváth

DFS Kopaničiarik from Myjava / children’s games, songs and dances from Myjava’s kopanice

14.00 live broadcast: artistic blacksmithing / Jozef Tomčala

FS Ekonóm from Bratislava / men’s verbunki and pair dances from eastern Slovakia

14.45 live broadcast: basketry / Erika Rudíková

DFS Kopaničiarik from Myjava / children’s games, songs and dances from Myjava’s Kopanice

15.30 live broadcast: decorating a large jug / Ján Viglaš

Dance school with teacher Lenka Šútorová-Konečná

16.30 festival closing ceremony

Rybné námestie

demonstrations of traditional crafts: processing of sheep wool and angora fur, production of forged sculptures, cast bells, fujara, Chilean hat, forged Easter eggs, blueprints and oversized clay jug, wood turning, bat weaving, basketry.

presentation of craft clubs at RCR ÚĽUV Bratislava

Saturday, Sunday | 10:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.

Panská ulica in front of BIBIANA

children’s craft workshops of the ÚĽUV Craft School, craft quiz and games, relaxation and game zone | 11:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.

Hviezdoslavovo námestie, Rybné námestie

gastronomic zones with dishes of traditional Slovak cuisine
Saturday, Sunday | 10:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.

Accept our heartfelt invitation to experience in one place the beauty and unwavering strength present in the union of creators who, with respect for the legacy of past generations, revive, save, and develop traditional crafts.

Location: Old town, Bratislava, Slovensko
Date: 06.09.2025 – 07.09.2025
Starts: from 10 AM
Admission: free of charge

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