This year’s “Gypsy Fest” was an attempt to bring awareness to the Roma culture and customs. A colourful parade passed through the centre of Vilnius. One of the festival’s highlights was a Roma village with traditional dishes and handicrafts. A fashion show and a free concert also took place.
The two-day “Gypsy Fest 2025” festival dedicated to Roma culture kicked off in Vilnius on Friday. The program includes a colorful parade, a fashion show, traditional food tastings, and Roma music concerts.
This September, Lithuanian listeners will be treated to a veritable cocktail of famous performers. According to the press release, the best Roma performers from abroad will perform on the stage of the international festival “Gypsy Fest 2025”.
On Tuesday April 8th, Vilnius hosted celebrations to mark World Roma Day. An event with the participation of representatives of the authorities and the Roma community was held in the Visitors’ Centre of the Seimas (Parliament). The Roma anthem was sung on the banks of the Neris River, and wreaths of flowers were lowered into the water to commemorate the victims of the Roma genocide.
A few years ago, the former mayor of Vilnius proudly announced on Facebook that the city had gotten rid of the “dark warehouse” that scared everyone. This is how the authorities of that time dehumanized the Roma settlement in the Porubanka district, which was finally razed to the ground in 2020.
Today, four years later, young Roma who grew up in Porubanka decided to take the floor and tell their story on their own terms. The exhibition not only restores the memory of the former settlement, but, above all, challenges established stereotypes and questions the way the city treats its marginalized residents.
In its report on Lithuania, the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) said the country should better promote LGBTI equality and Roma inclusion.
Gopalas Michailovskis is a Rom from Lithuania who went to high school and who studied opera, one of his great loves.
Listen to what he says about opera and listen to how Gopalas Mikhailovsky sings opera in Romanes.
The Gypsy Fest international festival of Roma culture promises many surprises this year: many groups from abroad, impressive performances and the first-ever Roma youth talent competition in Lithuania – “Romavision”. In the center of Vilnius: horses, carriages and colorful dances.
An article on Roma in Lithuania in the context of the April 8th celebrations.
According to the 2021 census, 2,251 Roma lived in Lithuania. There are still many false prejudices about this ethnic group, which result mainly from ignorance and lack of education.
The restaurant “Gypsy Lounge & Grill” of the leader of the Roma community, singer Ištvans Kviks recently closed its doors. The place, full of culture, gathered a lot of people both on weekends and on weekdays. As the restaurant owner testified, it was a place that destroyed stereotypes about Roma people. He said that “Our task was to introduce Roma cuisine to the public, but unfortunately, the three-year project ended. Our main task was to recruit Roma people. We employed a lot of Roma, and without a higher education, they are now working on their own, creating their own lives.”
Another article on the Gypsy Fest festival in Vilnius. It includes an annual Roma march through the city
This Roma procession was promoted by, among others, Isztwan Kwik, musician and leader of the band Sare Roma – a multi-generational band whose over 70-year history was highlighted by Honorata Adamowicz in the article “Three generations of Sare Roma. The Kwiks and the band revitalize the community” published in November last year.
The Gypsy Fest Festival is in full swing in Vilnius Lithuania, with a procession through town on the Sunday.
Unfortunately, some of the stereotypes are presented there too.
The Gypsy Fest Festival will take place this coming weekend in Vilnius, Lithuania.
Roma in Lithuania are a community that still faces discrimination from ordinary people, but also from state institutions.
Roma we spoke to admit that they hear almost every day that a “Gypsy is a thief”, that they cannot be trusted, that they are liars and a cheats.
A Romni tells “Kurier Wileński” that “Roma’s life is very hard. Many of us would like to live like people of other nationalities: go to work, have friends not only among the Roma, not feel inferior. I’d love to get a job. I have looked for her many times, but as soon as I say that I am a gypsy, there are a thousand reasons to refuse me a job. I am over 50 years old and have never been to a doctor. Not because I don’t get sick, but because I don’t have insurance because I don’t work. A closed circle.”
Ištvan Kvik, the well-known Lithuanian singer and leader of the Romano ensemble “Sare Roma”, is mostly known for Roma songs. He is now venturing in the Lithuanian folklore. Looking at Lithuanian folk songs from a different perspective, he says that they can also be given a fierier Roma touch. He also says that anyhow, Roma music has always been influenced by local music.
Ištvan Kwik, a well-known Rom in Lithuania, the leader of the band “Sare Roma” and the owner of a Restaurant “Gypsy Lounge and Grill” in the capital has launched an exhibition in his restaurant highlighting the Roma origins of several well-known persons such as Charlie Chaplin. The aim of this exhibition is for as many people as possible to learn about the roots of the Roma nationality and its spread in the world. And the most important thing is to break stereotypes.
Kwik stated tat “Employers are still afraid to hire Roma because they are guided by various stereotypes that arise from fear or ignorance. It is also the case when Roma are looking for a house to rent, Roma children are still bullied in schools and are often ostracized by their peere”.
An article in the Polish press about the Lithuanian Roma group “Sare Roma”. The group is led by the Kwik family, Lithuanian Lovara and was founded 70 years ago by the grandfather of Isztwan Kwik.
Next weekend, September 4., Vilnius will be rocked by the most colourful music event – the Roma culture festival “Gypsy fest 2022”. The organizer of the event, a well-known Lithuanian Rom, head of the ensemble “Sare roma”, Ištvans Kvik says that this year’s festival, invites us to forget about the differences between nations and to remember respect for each other.
The “Gypsy Fest” Festival will take place on September 4th in the Lithuanian capital.
The Lithuanian Department of National Minorities has proposed the introduction of August 2nd as a national day of remembrance of the Roma Holocaust.
– Департамент нацменьшинств Литвы предлагает включить в памятные даты день геноцида ромов. In: RU.DELFI. 08.02.2019. https://ru.delfi.lt/news/live/departament-nacmenshinstv-litvy-predlagaet-vklyuchit-v-pamyatnye-daty-den-genocida-romov.d?id=80319277 [link-preview url=”https://ru.delfi.lt/news/live/departament-nacmenshinstv-litvy-predlagaet-vklyuchit-v-pamyatnye-daty-den-genocida-romov.d?id=80319277″]
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