Tilburg
28 May 2016
Mark the last weekend of May 2016 on your calendar, because the 20th edition of the International Gipsy Festival Tilburg will be celebrated honorably, festively, innovatively, and in style.
The International Gipsy Festival is a Tilburg festival focused on the art and culture of the Roma and Sinti community. The first International Gipsy Festival took place in 1997, at various locations in Tilburg. Since 2003 the festival has moved to the Interpolis garden.
The gipsy festival is known for its efforts to break new ground. Each year it offers a variety of musical surprises and unusual combinations. The gipsy genre is widely interpreted. It is the flagship that incorporates a large number of subgenres, such as: balkan, flamenco, klezmer, gipsy swing, jazz; but also hip-hop, brass band and folk are common musical styles at the gipsy festival.
Musical groups and dancers from Europe, Russia, and India have graced the stage in the past. Invariably, a varied ensemble is invited over to Tilburg.
Requiem for Auschwitz
In addition to the annual festival in the Interpolis garden, the International Gipsy Festival is the initiator of the Requiem for Auschwitz project. Requiem for Auschwitz is a monument in music, film, images and words. It represents all victims of the Holocaust, and simultaneously requests attention for the 'forgotten genocide'; the tragedy that Roma and Sinti have undergone during the Nazi regime.
The event is based on the composition Requiem for Auschwitz (2009) by composer Roger 'Moreno' Rathgeb. In 2012 he went on a European tour. The Requiem was performed in cities like Berlin, Prague and Amsterdam.
Roger 'Moreno' Rathgeb, the composer of the Requiem for Auschwitz, will come visit secondary schools. There he will play parts of the Requiem on his accordion. Meanwhile, he tells the students how and why he composed the Requiem, what efforts he made, and starts a discussion with them about Auschwitz and the commemoration of the victims of the Holocaust.
International Gipsy Festival 2015:
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Photo Credits:
(1) International Gipsy Festival Tilburg,
(2)-(3) Fanfare Ciocărlia,
(4) Rakija,
(5) Amariszi,
(6) BandAdriatica,
(7) Barcelona Gipsy Klezmer Orchestra
(by Jan van Eerd/International Gipsy Festival Tilburg).
