The Khamoro Festival will bring the best of Roma culture to Prague for the twenty-sixth time. In the accompanying program, there will be a debate on Roma education – Romea.cz

“We tuned the program up to the last minute, and I can promise that everyone will really enjoy it. I believe that this year’s Khamoro will be at least as successful as last year, when we celebrated our twenty-fifth birthday and enjoyed the huge interest of visitors. We are very much looking forward to everyone who loves Roma culture or is just starting to discover it. Khamoro shines for everyone,” said Džemil Silajdžić, chief dramaturg and producer of the festival.

The weekly marathon will start on Sunday, May 26, at the Khamoro party in Gauča at the Exhibition Centre. And this year, the darlings of the Czech and Slovak Roma will arrive – funk star Igor Kmeťo and the extremely talented, only sixteen-year-old singer Vanesa Horáková. There will also be concerts of traditional Roma music. Their concept is based on the fact that Roma live scattered all over the world and therefore offers performances by Roma artists from all over the world. This year, visitors can look forward to, among other things, a real dulcimer.

“Erik Holuba’s dulcimer has in its repertoire everything that we can imagine under the term traditional Roma music of the Czech and Slovak Roma,” described festival spokesperson Claudie Laburdová.

One of the main stars will also be the Portuguese group Ciganos d’Ouro, which performs repeatedly at Khamor. A special dance show was prepared by the Barcelona Flamenco Ballet offering a new perspective on flamenco.

“But that’s not all. In addition to groups from the Czech Republic, Portugal or Spain, visitors will see bands from Hungary, Latvia or North Macedonia,” Laburdová revealed. According to her, Khamoro will also offer concerts of world-renowned gypsy jazz this year, and the organizers promise world-class stars.

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A novelty will be the gastronomic program “Aven te chal!” with leading Roma chef Pavle Berky. Part of the accompanying program of this year’s Khamor will also be the production of the Slovak National Theater “Budete mať luft!”. The performance is a reconstruction of a tragic event from 1928. At that time, a group of troublemakers from the western Slovak village of Pobedim attacked a nearby Roma settlement. “The performance is not for the faint of heart,” admits festival spokesperson Claudie Laburdová.

This year, the largest Roma festival in the world will also include a professional program. The ROMEA organization has prepared a debate on Roma education, which will be attended by experts, leaders of scholarship programs for young Roma, as well as Roma high school and university graduates themselves.

Over a quarter of a century of existence, over 260 bands from 33 countries have performed at the Khamoro festival, and around 10,000 visitors visit it every year. The main purpose of Khamor is to connect the Roma minority and the majority through art. From the beginning, Václav Havel, among others, supported the festival. Khamoro holds the prestigious EFFE Label award – a European quality mark.