Diverse Lineup at NY Gypsy Festival 2010

The NY Gypsy Festival celebrates its sixth annual performance schedule with one of the most outstanding and diverse lineups of its storied history. The festival kicks off on September 24 with the inimitable clarinetist Selim Sesler performing with The NY Gypsy All Stars Band at the newly revamped Lower East Side club Drom.

Next, the NY Gypsy Festival 2010 moves to South Street Seaport on September 25 for a sailing cruise around Manhattan that offers a wild gypsy party from the internationally acclaimed DJ Pepe and DJ Wonderlust.

A very special free extravaganza in Central Park on September 26 marks the end of both summer and SummerStage as The Center for Traditional Music and Dance and WMI join NY Gypsy Festival in bringing The Black Sea Roma Festival featuring the United States premieres of the musical ensembles Mahala Rai Banda and Técsöi Banda plus Selim Sesler with The New York Gypsy All-Stars, The Yuri Yunakov Ensemble and DJ Wonderlust. Mahala Rai Banda recordings available: Mahala Rai Banda and Ghetto Blasters.

The festival returns to Drom on September 30th with band leader Arturo Martinez and Espiritu Gitano for an evening of Flamenco music, song and dance.

Unconventional, international electronic fusion is the order of the night on October 1 at Drom, as Canada’s Delhi 2 Dublin and Mexico’s DJ Gadjio and DJ Blacky explore the intersection of Bhangra, Celtic, Dub and traditional gypsy music.

Blazing Balkan brass power will overcome your senses and move your feet when heavyweight performers Zlatne Uste Brass Band and Veveritse Brass Band take the stage at Drom on October 2.

The Festival draws to an end with our final show on October 3 at Drom: a tribute to the immortal Django Reinhardt on the 100th anniversary of his birth, featuring the outstandingly talented Parisian guitarist Stephane Wrembel and the multicultural stylings of the explosive Balval.

“The cultural inheritance of gypsy music is both vast and complex,” say Serdar Ilhan and Mehmet Dede, NY Gypsy Festival Producers. “When you speak about ‘gypsy music’ you are drawing from a diaspora of countries and ethnicities where centuries-old history goes hand in hand with new innovations. The challenge for us, every year, is to keep up with the tradition’s constant reinvention while not forgetting its roots: to give equal consideration to venerated legends and fiery upstarts, the urbane to the rustic, to Gypsy jazz and Gypsy punk alike. In this, our sixth year programming The NY Gypsy Festival, we believe we have risen to the challenge.

From traditional wedding music to contemporary dance electronica, from the influence of Gypsy music in Flamenco to big bands, from a celebration of the work of the legendary Django Reinhardt to the music of the Black Sea Region to an unlikely Celtic/North Indian fusion with Gypsy ancestry, from a tall ship to Central Park to the Lower East Side; we believe every show in The 6th Annual NY Gypsy Festival is a can’t-miss performance.

Please join us and take part in the celebration of a proud peoples’ culture. Whether the music is new to you or you are a longtime fan, you will be welcomed with open arms.”

This year marks the first opportunity for the public to purchase passes to The NY Gypsy Festival. For only $25, the pass will allow access to all four of the shows between September 30 and October 3. Festival passes are available now on The NY Gypsy Festival website.