Gipsy Kings play their biggest hits at the Mendel Festival in Brno, Czech Republic, Fanfare Ciocarlia also on the bill

The festival venue is the monastery in Old Brno where the discoverer of the principles of heredity, Mendel, worked as a monk. “We take advantage of the entire grounds of the monastery, and I hope collaboration with the city will also make it possible to use the newly-adapted Mendel Square,” Jakub Carda told journalists on behalf of the organizers.

This year the festival was more extensive than usual as it falls on Mendel’s 200th birthday. Approximately 25,000 people attended.

Last year performances were held on two big stages, but this year there will be just one in the garden of the monastery. The program includes popular science lectures in the newly-repaired Mendel Greenhouse and an auxiliary program for children and their parents.

The festival is free of charge still. The musical program scheduled for Friday, 21 July is chiefly intended for a younger audience.

Bands such as The People or Bert & Friends will play on Friday. On Saturday the musical offerings are more likely to suit people of all generations.

“The day is starting with the popular Brno band Poletíme? [“Shall We Fly?”]. Next we will present the Balkan turbo-brass band from Romania, Fanfare Ciocarlia, one of the most famous groups playing that catchy musical style,” said the dramaturg of the musical section of the festival, Buchta.

Gipsy Kings will be the festival’s headliner, as they have celebrated success since the 1980s with their songs inspired by flamenco, Romani music and Spanish music. The group has repeatedly performed in the Czech Republic, first performing in Brno in 2011 in a sports hall.

Buchta says they will reprise their hits “Baila Me”, “Bamboleo” and “Volare”. The festival this year newly includes a cycle of lectures in the Mendel Greenhouse.

“Where else should new scientific findings and their aspects today, full of modern technology and artificial intelligence, be discussed than in the place where the basics of genetics were discovered?” Masaryk University’s Vice Chancellor Šárka Pospíšilová asked rhetorically. The university is giving its auspices to the festival’s scientific program.

“The program will close with a Holy Mass on Sunday in the Basilica of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary,” said Wit Marciniec for the Augustinian community of Old Brno. They are the local followers of Mendel’s order today.