Druga Godba

Druga Godba Ljubljana is a non-profit cultural institute co-founded in 1998 by Bogdan Benigar. It is best-known for organising the Druga Godba international music festival, which is held every May in Ljubljana and, occasionally, elsewhere in Slovenia. For more than three decades, it's mission has been to rediscover and introduce less well-known musical styles and traditions, alongside big-name acts on the world and indigenous music scenes, and to explore the intersection between old and new.

Druga Godba Festival is nowadays a major Slovene international world music festival. It was established in 1984 as an alternative and supplement to other music festivals in Ljubljana of that time which did not present the more radical and "different" music practices. Since its inception the festival has developed into one of the most significant European festivals of its type, establishing collaborations with many other important festivals and becoming a member of the international Forum of Worldwide Music Festivals (FWMF).

At the outset its programme was primarily concerned with different kinds of "otherness in music": alternative rock, "rock in opposition", adventurous new jazz, improvised music and experimental music, as well as rediscovered Slovene folk music. Druga godba, its juicy name could be translated and written as "that other music", was the first festival in the former Yugoslavia to introduce popular musics and styles from the Third World, including reggae and various styles of African music. Gradually also other genres of ethnic music from both European and non-European cultural surroundings were included. Thus the festival was a pioneer in the region in presenting representatives of African, Arab, Latino popular music, even before the actual European "boom" of so-called "world music".

Since 2013, Druga Godba has expanded the festival programme throughout the whole year with the Sogodbe concert series. The Sogodbe concerts are generally smaller in scale than the festival concerts, but share the latter's enthusiasm for artists who push boundaries within a specific local, national or continental music tradition. Highlights in the 2023 included The Comet Is Coming (UK) and Nihilixica (UG/UK).

Druga Godba Ljubljana also runs a record label, DruGod, which has released recordings from the festival as well as albums by Brina (2004, 2006, 2011, 2022), Godalika (2006), Bossa de Novo (2009), Kaja Draksler Acropolis Quartet (2009) and VIRA (2023).