What is ghettofest?

Ghettofest is the street festival taking place in Brno, in the socially excluded area called “Bronx of Brno”. It is a unique socially-cultural concept created especially for the given area. The main intentions of the festival are the opening – of the ghetto, of the minds of its inhabitants as well as of people living in Brno in general and hope – for better co-existence and for mutual respect without any confrontations and limitations. Ghettofest is not a pro-Roma festival. Ghettofest is the festival for all! As such it is being organized by people who are living in the area, used to live there or have a very close relation to it, no matter if they are Roma or Czechs. 2014 is already the 3. year of the Ghettofest. The admission is voluntary.

why GHETTOFEEST?

We would like to draw the attention to the fact that the area is inhabited by the Roma, as well as by the Czech, people and they live next to each other together with other nationalities, such as Vietnamese or Ukrainians. For one day we would like to open this area storied with the prejudices, draw the attention to it and bring in also other inhabitants of Brno. We would like to show and create the space, where through the culture and art all the people who like to have fun come together. In addition to this, we would like to open a discussion about how to improve the life in the area and what its future looks like.

what are the aims of the FESTIVAL?

Aim of the Ghettofest is to open the area for one weekend and create the space where the people of various ethnic and religious backgrounds with very diverse interests and life experiences come together – people willing to experience unique program within the notorious town environment and to support the tolerance and positive neighborly experiences as the important values.
The local inhabitants will encounter other people from Brno within music, discussions, dance and other dialogical forms of art.

The goal is to bring to “Bronx” a certain esthetic feature and to carry out the hidden beauty of the area. Through the street art we would like to create visual art piece that will remain here as the remembrance of the festival´s main intention.

The experiences from previous years are purely positive and we have experienced almost a miracle – thousands of people always created unique atmosphere without any – by many so expected – conflicts. Very open and positive atmosphere came as a surprise not only to the visitors, but also to the police, the city municipality and the media. Festival Ghettofest is the proof that living together depends on shared experiences, time spent together and getting to know each-other.

who organizes the event?

The main organizer of the event is NGO TRIPITAKA. You can visit the web presentation at http://www.tripitaka.cz/node/271.