Roma Festival

This past weekend Bry and I went to the 13th Annual Roma Festival. We have lived in Sonoma Co. for nearly 10 years, but this was our first visit to the festivities… can’t believe we have never been before! It was a great event hosted by Voice of Roma in Sebastopol, CA. The festival highlighted the plight of the Roma in diaspora while celebrating the rich, wonderful culture of the Roma people through film, art, music and food. Voice of Roma was established as a non-profit organization that raises funds to benefit Roma in Kosovo. They have built schools, aided job development and 100 % of the proceeds from the festival go directly to the Kosovo projects. One of my favorites of Roma culture is the music, whose roots are deep and have been major influences in the current world culture today. For example, most people consider the music and dance of Flamenco as being quintessentially Spanish, however this is a Roma contribution to the Spanish culture. There are a number of bands that are so awesome, and to sample a bit of this greatness check out:

Fanfare Ciocărlia: http://www.myspace.com/fanfareciocarlia

Kočani Orkestar: http://www.myspace.com/kocaniorkestar

All in all we had a great time!

Green highlight: in an effort to continually be “greener” the festival decided this year to not sell plastic water bottles, and instead offered reusable water bottles made from recycled material.