World Roma Festival

What it is

Khamoro is the short name the festival goes by. In Czech it is called Mezinárodní romský festival, a title English speakers often render as World Roma Festival. It is international in reach: performers are invited from other countries, and the organisers put Romani musicians from different places on the same bill. Prague is where it happens, and it happens every year. The festival lasts five days. Music is the centre of it, but the programme also makes room for discussion, dancing and public spectacle. Its own organisers place it among the foremost Romani projects in the world and say that leading Romani musicians take part.

Three strands of work

The programme is built in three parts. One is the Media Section, which puts out information before the festival opens and helps the public follow what is coming. Another is the Expert Section, where seminars bring people together to talk through subjects that matter to Romani communities. The third is the Culture Section, where the music, the dancing and the parades sit. The three parts run side by side, so a visitor can move between a talk in the daytime and a concert at night.

Music and dance

Live music is the centre of the festival, and the organisers make a point of its international character. Romani performers are invited from many countries, and the event is presented as a place where leading Romani musicians can be heard together. Concerts fill the evenings. Dancing belongs to the same strand, and parades carry music and movement out into the open, so the streets of Prague become part of the programme rather than a route between venues. Some of the events take place indoors, in clubs in the city, which gives those evenings a smaller and closer setting.

The streets of Prague

Prague is the one city tied to this festival; the sources name no other. For five days in May the event spreads across the Czech capital. Parades in the open air are the part most passers-by meet by accident, while other events sit in clubs in the city. The festival is international in outlook, so it draws people from outside the Czech Republic as well as from within it. Nothing in the available material places it anywhere else, which makes Prague both its home and its only site.

How World Roma Festival is kept

Performers and speakers travel to Prague from many countries. Across five days, audiences hear concerts, watch dancing and join parades. Some of this happens outdoors on the streets, and some indoors in the city's clubs. Seminars bring together people who work on Romani subjects. Media work comes earlier, releasing information before the festival opens. Then the whole event is repeated the following May.

When and where

It is kept once a year, in May, and lasts five days. The sources give no rule for picking the dates within the month, or say who decides them.

Prague, in the Czech Republic, is the city it belongs to. It is strongest there, and no other place appears in the sources as a site for it. Within Prague it stretches from the open streets to clubs elsewhere in the city.

What World Roma Festival means

Those who run the festival present it as more than a set of concerts. It is a chance to put Romani music and dance before a wide public and to show that Romani culture reaches across borders. Musicians meet one another there. Its organisers describe it as standing among the foremost Romani projects in the world, and the presence of leading Romani performers is part of that claim.

Questions people ask about World Roma Festival

See also

PysankaA wax-resist egg decorating tradition kept by Slavic communities for Easter and spring renewal.ChristkindThe traditional Christmas Eve gift-bringer across Central Europe and Latin AmericaRide of the KingsA Moravian spring procession where horsemen escort a silent boy king holding a roseKoliadaA traditional winter caroling and solstice festival kept across Slavic Europe

Good reading and sources

• In pictures: World Roma festivalBBC, Article
• In pictures: World Roma festivalBBC, Article

• World Roma Festival on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• More photos on Wikimedia CommonsPhotos and video
• Wikidata recordOpen data

It may contain mistakes. Traditions differ from one family, village and community to the next, and the people who keep them know them best. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-14.