The New York Gypsy Festival aims to offer a broad perspective on various cultures and musical genres in a city that's considered at the crossroads of many cultures. It takes place September 19th through 30th, 2007 at The Drom, Mehanata, Joe's Pub and Central Park in NYC, the festival will highlight local and international talents of gypsy (Romani) music.

Covering a wide geographical region including Hungary, France, Turkey, Czech Republic and the Balkans, the rich diversity of this music is on full display at this festival. 2007 Festival featuring local talents and International talents of Gypsy Music with artist like Romano Drom (Hungary), Baba Zula (Turkey) Norig (France), Bengas (Czech Republic)

Additionally, “Gypsy New Yorkers” and Balkan brass bands like New York Gypsy All-Stars Band, Ivan Milev Band, Romashka, Slavic Soul Party, Zlatne Uste, Zagnut Orkestar, Golem and Frank London.

The festival also aims to highlight the aspect of Romani dancing with dance performances by ethnic dancers.

The New York Gypsy Festival is produced by two seasoned event production & nightlife patrons: Serdar Ilhan, who put together the hugely successful Jazz Made In Turkey Festival at Lincoln Center in 2004 and co-owns DROM and Alex Dimitrov, who built an underground phenomena with Mehanata, The Bulgarian Bar.

Says Ilhan, "New York's cultural diversity makes sense to put together this
festival here. We are trying to open the door to world music and more specifically gypsy (Roma) music in the US by an accessible festival."

The programming for the festival was done very carefully in order to allow the mix of many genre-bending acts from punk-rock to jazz, hip-hop, global beats, funk and cabaret music with an underlying gypsy aesthetic.

The festival will continue throughout the week at downtown venues Drom, Mehanata and Joe's Pub with local bands and DJs presenting an eclectic mix of world, gypsy and dance music in a cozy atmosphere. Check the schedule and artists area of this website to find out more about the performances and bands involved.

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