''Ivan Goran Kovačić'' Folk Ensemble was established in 1948 under the auspices of the University of Zagreb, within the Student Cultural and Artistic Association of the same name. As a part of the Association, the Ensemble has always aspired to preserve the abundant cultural diversity of Croatian folk and city tradition. Generations of Goran members, or simply Goran's, have gradually created their own identity in the vast field of Croatian culture, by trully honouring music (played on tamburitzas and variety of traditional instruments), dance and songs, as well as Croatian national garments.

Through the years the identity of the Ensemble had virtually grown into identity of Zagreb, especially into one of Zagreb's Opatovina. In the past sixty years Goran's have played an inevitable part in many of the city's urban legends and nowadays one can hardly find a resident of Zagreb who is not familiar with them.

Devoted to traditional music, songs and dances, the Ensemble gradually created an integral collection of choreographed folk dances from all parts of Croatia, brought to realization by researchers of folk tradition from all around Croatia. Therefore, the Ensemble's programme consists of variety of folk songs and dances coming from Zagorje, Prigorje, Turopolje, Posavina, Moslavina, Međimurje, Slavonia, Baranja, Istra, Lika, Dalmatia (including dances from Split, island Korčula, and Dubrovnik), Dalmatinska Zagora, dances of Croats in Bačka (so called Bunjevci), Croats in Hungary and Burgenland in Austria. The Ensemble presented its repertoire at many Croatian folklore festivals, but also introduced itself to Croatians, as well as foreigners, throughout Europe, USA, Canada, Brazil, Venezuela, Peru, New Zealand, Australia, Mexico and Israel.

The great treasury of the Ensemble, and one particularly valued, are the 480 individual pieces of traditional costumes from various parts of Croatia. Some of these costumes are reconstructed, but most of them are original with an estimated museum value. This wealthy fund resulted from fieldwork research produced by Croatian researchers who carefully selected and bought up pieces of costumes, which were then cherished and preserved by many generations of the Goran members. Today, the Ensemble is under the guidance of excellent folklore experts and has cca 80 members who are dancers, singers and tamburitza players, mostly students, coming from different parts of Croatia. ''Ivan Goran Kovačić'' is also one of the few ensembles which have a Veteran Section that gathers its old members. The Ensemble confirms its artistic level by numerous national and international acknowledgements, however, the greatest pleasure and acknowledgement to Goran's is presenting the art of their dance and singing performance in front of the audience. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.