The International festival of traditional and modern folklore “SUKLEGOS” takes place every autumn in Kaunas, Lithuania. Its motto is “a modern way to deal with folklore”. The festival is an attempt to gather in one place stylistically diverse musical projects that are based on folklore and traditional culture.

On the festival stage there performed musicians from Hungary, Belarus, Latvia, Estonia, Russia, Turkey, Bulgaria, the United States, Poland, Belgium etc. The music presented at SUKLEGOS is defined as intellectual folklore, post-folklore, folk jazz, modern folk, world music, new age. Participants of the festival are well-known musicians, folklorists and composers as well as young performers for whom the festival can be an occasion to prepare a project based on folklore. The professionals as well as amateurs play here.

The organisers aim to defy stereotypes and broaden the outlook on tradition that can only be preserved by adopting it to the modern reality. The event is mainly directed at young people and its purpose is encouraging them to get interested in the traditional culture and to discover folklore. Young people sometimes understand the ethnic culture or folklore as a play of elderly people in the countryside. But they change their point of view when the ideas of the ethnic culture are popularised by youth idols or youth movements’ leaders. That is why young rock and pop groups are invited every year to the festival to present their interpretation of folk music.

The organisers hope that the festival SUKLEGOS will not only present the outlook of musicians of different nationalities on musical roots, but also will encourage Lithuanian performers to undertake new folk projects.