Warsaw Village Band () is a band from Warsaw, Poland, that plays traditional Polish folk music tunes combined with modern elements. About the band According to the band's manifesto, it was formed as a response to mass culture and narrow-mindedness, "which in fact leads to [the] destruction of human dignity." After the fall of the Berlin Wall and the expansion of the European Union to most of the former Warsaw Pact countries, Poland's economy has grown dramatically, as has investment by multinational corporations, raising concerns about the loss of Poland's cultural identity under globalism. Warsaw Village Band was conceived as a response to this trend that would explore Poland's musical traditions and make them relevant to its new capitalist economy. Member Wojciech Krzak has stated that "after the nightmare of Communism, we still have to fight for our identity, and we know that beauty and identity are still in our roots." Krzak has further stated that the band are "trying to create a new cultural proposition for the youth in an alternative way to contemporary show-biz." The band's very name appears to evoke what troubles Krzak about Poland's new capitalism: many large Polish cities do not have suburbs in the traditional sense, leading to unsettling transitions directly from city to field. To this end, in Wykorzenienie (Uprooting), the band traveled throughout Poland to find and record older musicians who still played almost-forgotten styles of music, thereafter incorporating those melodies into new songs and expounding upon them. The band also incorporate socially conscious folk lyrics in their songs. The song "Kto się żeni" ("Who is Getting Married") on their second album, Wiosna Ludu (People's Spring), discusses a young country girl who refuses to be married off, opting instead to "sing, dance, and be free rather than being dependent on someone." Warsaw Village Band have appeared at several international music festivals, including the 2005 Roskilde Festival in Denmark, the 2004 Masala Festival in Hanover, Germany, and the 2000 International Ethnic Music Fest in Germany. Instrumentation [[File:Suka bilgorajska.jpg|thumb|Suka, a Polish folk fiddle from the 17th century used by the band.]] Notably, Warsaw Village Band have revived several musical traditions that were all but lost in Poland. The band use instruments rarely heard in modern music: frame drums, the hurdy-gurdy and the suka, a Polish folk fiddle from the 17th century stopped with the fingernails rather than the fingers, similar to the Bulgarian gadulka,