The 26th annual KHAMORO festival brings the best of Romani cultural output to the Czech capital, side events include a debate on education

The festival, organized by the NGO Slovo 21 and Studio Production Saga, has been bringing the best of Romani cultural output to Prague for 26 years now. It is a festival that aids Romani people with finding their lost identity and that combats stereotypes and xenophobia.

The festival brings people together because, just like the sun after which it is named, it shines for everybody. “We have been fine-tuning the program down to the very last minute, and I can promise everybody will genuinely find something of interest there. I believe this year’s KHAMORO will be at least as successful as last year’s, when we celebrated our 25th birthday and were pleased by such enormous interest from those attending. We very much look forward to everybody who loves the cultural output of the Roma or who is just starting to discover it. KHAMORO shines for everybody,” said the main dramaturg and producer of the festival, Džemil Silajdžić.

The week-long marathon starts on Sunday, 26 May with the KHAMORO PARTY at the Gauč venue in the Výstaviště (Exhibition Grounds). This year favorites of the Czech and Slovak Roma will perform, funk star Igor Kmeťo and the exceptionally talented vocalist Vanesa Horáková, who is just 16.

Concerts of traditional Romani music will also be on the program. The concept is based on the fact that Romani people live scattered all over the world, so the program offers performances by Romani musicians from all over the world.

This year visitors can look forward to a real cimbalom band, among other acts. “Erik Holub’s Cimbalom Band has everything in its repertoire that we can imagine under the rubric of Czech and Slovak Romani traditional music,” Claudie Laburdová, spokesperson for the festival, described the group.

One of the main stars will also be the Portuguese group Ciganos d’Ouro [The Golden Gypsies], who have performed repeatedly at KHAMORO. A special dance show prepared by the Barcelona Flamenco Ballet will offer a new perspective on flamenco.

“That is far from everything, though. In addition to groups from the Czech Republic, Portugal and Spain, audiences can hear bands from Hungary, Latvia and North Macedonia,” Laburdová revealed.

The spokesperson said KHAMORO will offer concerts of world-renowned “gypsy jazz” this year as well and organizers are promising they will be world-class stars. This year’s innovation will be the cooking program “Aven te chal!” with the leading Romani chef Pavel Berky.

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Part of the side events to KHAMORO this year will also be a staging by the Slovak National Theater of the play Budete mať luft! [You’ll Get Some Air]. That production is a reconstruction of a tragic historical event from 1928 in Czechoslovakia.

A group of non-Romani brawlers from the western Slovak municipality of Pobedim perpetrated a pogrom on a nearby Romani settlement that year. “That performance is not for people of a weaker nature,” the festival spokesperson admits.

An academic program will also be part of the biggest festival of Romani cultural output in the world. The ROMEA organization will hold a debate on the education of Romani people featuring experts, the leaders of scholarship programs for Romani youth, and the Romani graduates of high schools and colleges in the Czech Republic.

During the KHAMORO Festival’s quarter-century of existence, more than 260 bands from 33 countries have performed, and it is annually attended by about 10,000 visitors. The main point of KHAMORO is to connect the majority society to the Romani minority through their art.

The festival was supported from the beginning by Václav Havel (1936-2011), among others. KHAMORO has also been awarded the prestigious EFFE Label (Europe for Festivals, Festivals for Europe) for its quality.