Ukrainian Hudaki Village Band at Pohoda 2025
The music of the nine Ukrainian Hudaki, a dialect word for village musicians, will instantly transport you from Trenčín Airport to a wild Carpathian wedding celebration.
11. June 2025
What made an 18-year-old guy from a respectable Viennese family abandon city life and settle in a Transcarpathian village of just 3,000 people? The answer lies in the music of Hudaki Village Band, led by Jürgen – now Yuri. As a young man, he gave up his clarinet studies at the Vienna Conservatory to settle in the Ukrainian village of Nyzhnje Selyshche, where he immediately fell in love with the local people and their music, steeped in Slavic, Jewish, Romanian, and Roma traditions.
Their performance at Pohoda promises an unforgettable experience – as rich as their colourful costumes. The music of Hudaki Village Band is infused with Slavic vocal traditions, Romanian melodies, and Jewish and Roma rhythms.
Over the course of their more than 20-year history, the band has gone from playing at village celebrations and weddings to performing on the stages of major international festivals, including Hungary’s Sziget, Bardentreffen in Germany, KlezMore in Vienna, Festival des 5 Continents in Switzerland, and Les Suds à Arles in France.
Despite the war that began in February 2022, the band continues to perform abroad with permission from Ukraine’s Ministry of Culture. In the summer of 2024, they recorded their sixth album, which is being released these days.