I suppose it was a racing certainty that I would open my gob on this one. With the exception of 'Walking Wounded' where on earth are the British Gypsy Films and performers? The same problem happened at the Barbican some years ago, and my wife and I ended up contacting a number of British Gypsy singers and performers to maintain the balance. The celebration continued in Edinburgh and with the help of Bob Pegg once again the balance was restored with sets from Irish travellers and English singers (Mic and Suzie Darling, and the Orchard Family) Poetry from Mally Dow and the Scots tradition from Sheila Stewart. I absolutely love Eastern European music be it Gypsy or any other so don't get me wrong. I can supply Films on the Gypsy way of life on DVD (at least five) Documentaries on Gypsy Art and Crafts(at least Seven) so there is no excuse. I think that probably the organisers may not have had any contact within the British Gypsy community,which is fair enough.
A massive plus to the organisers for putting this on in the first place, and just as an important corollory, The Gypsy Council have long campaigned for the word Gypsy to be spelled with a capitol 'G', just as we would English French etc. In the above post not once did the writer use lower case so a massive plus again. Very best of luck with the Festival, but try to include some home grown Artist next time if possible.