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NY Gypsy Festival
2005 - 2010 at various venues in New York City
Produced by Serdar Ilhan & Mehmet Dede
The NY Gypsy Festival was founded in 2005 to introduce and promote the music of the Gypsy people from around the world to Americans. In its first six years, the Festival was enjoyed by thousands of fans at venues including SummerStage, Symphony Space, Central Park's De La Corte Theater, Drom, Joe's Pub, NYU's Skirball Center and Knitting Factory. Acts presented include Gogol Bordello (US), Mahala Rai Banda (Romania), Beirut (US), KAL (Serbia), Ivo Papasov (Bulgaria), Balkan Beat Box (Israel), Selim Sesler (Turkey), Acquariaga Drom (Italy), Watcha Clan (France), Slavic Soul Party (US) and Kolpakov Trio (Russia), among many others. After attending the 2006 New York Gypsy Festival, Spin Magazine excitedly declared in its January 2007 issue that Gypsy Music was the "Scene of the year." Recent articles on Gypsy music in Newsweek and New York Times also attest to the growing popularity of Gypsy music in America.
"Year after year, the NY Gypsy Festival remains one of New York’s most consistently exciting concert series." - Lucid Culture Blog
"Run don't walk to these performances. And don't forget your tambourines and joie-de-vivre." - Village Voice
"This festival's producers do a commendable job, gathering a geographically and stylistically diverse group of Gypsy-touched artists." - New York Times
"DJs spinning souped-up versions of old European folk songs have been drawing crowds in Europe and in the US for the past several years. Now, the scene has spread to other places." - WNYC
Official Website
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Is America Part of the World?
2009 & 2010 at various venues in Brooklyn
Produced by Scott Kettner & Mehmet Dede
In 2007 NY-based, Brazilian-influenced band Nation Beat was invited to perform at a "world music" festival where they were asked to not play their songs that were in English. This inspired Nation Beat band leader Scott Kettner to bring together musical acts who blur the lines of world music, as well as foster a platform of discussion and debate about this controversial and very vague term.
The series launched in Summer 2009 at the BKLYN Yard with an outdoor festival featuring Forro in the Dark, Nation Beat, Red Baraat Festival and DJ Nickodemus. The second installemnt hosted Bay Area band Rupa & The April Fishes with Nation Beat at the Bell House. The 3rd episode takes place on Dec 10, 2010 at Littlefields with Nation Beat, Brooklyn Qawwali Party, Tall Tall Trees and DJ Turmix.
"Brooklyn's new Global Music series" - National Geographic
"The concert isn't so much a question, as a statement to the conventions that define the world music category, and which these, and many other bands nationwide, defy." - Brooklyn Courier-Life
"Impressively energized crowd pack[ed] the Bell House in remote Gowanus, Brooklyn." - Lucid Culture Blog
Official Website
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Istanbulive: The Sounds & Colors of Turkey
2009 & 2010 at Central Park SummerStage
Produced by Serdar Ilhan & Mehmet Dede
In its two years, the Istanbulive festival, brought together over 12,000 spectators to Central Park for a day of music from Turkey - the largest-ever assemblies of musicians from Turkey on an American stage. The concerts featured five unprecedented hours of the most diverse and important music the nation had to offer.
From a legendary Turkish folk-rock band to intricate Mediterranean Gypsy music and raucous world beat funk jams, the concerts featured pop stars MFO, Sertab Erener, Demir Demirkan, Kenan Dogulu, Duman and many more.
"Turkey-U.S. relations have been in the news lately, with many commentators expressing concern that Turkey is tilting away from the West. This concert suggests otherwise." - The New Yorker
"This four-hour variety pack should introduce New Yorkers to the relatively unknown sound of modern Turkey in both its older and newer incarnations." - Village Voice
"The Turkish Woodstock." - Lucid Culture Blog
"The vibrant culture of Turkey and its largest city, Istanbul, springs to life." - TimeOut NY
Official Website
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