Respect Festival, 28th edition, Prague – a zone of tolerance full of music, rhythms, colours and flavours from all over the world. The country’s most important year-round world music showcase each year presents the most varied mix you won’t hear anywhere else: from fading traditions to contemporary global fusions, from genre veterans to hot newcomers. The festival programme offers concerts throughout the year, culminating in a two-day Open Air show on 14-15 June 2025 on the island of Štvanice. The creator of the festival’s visual is once again František Skála.
The first announced performer at Open Air on 14 and 15 June on Prague’s Štvanice Island is Norwegian-Sami singer Mari Boine, who for the first time ever introduced the music of the people of the European North, the Sami, an ethnic group formerly known as the Lapps, to a wider international audience. Her 1989 breakthrough album Gula Gula was released by Peter Gabriel on his Real World label. Mari Boine’s songs gave authentic content to then still vague concepts such as shamanism or Nordic pagan rituals. The singer put her native genre in a global context and in 2008 was appointed professor of ethnomusicology at the University of Nesna. Her latest album Alva, which she will present in Prague, is an artistic return and the singer’s strongest recording since 2006’s Idjagieđas.
Another confirmed act is Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti & Frank Rosaly’s MESTIZX feat. James McClure, Ben Boye & Matt Lux. Drummer Frank Rosaly is one of the world’s most sought-after artists due to his versatile talent. He has played with Kurdish singer Meral Polat, who has performed here twice, contributed to Markéta Irglová’s solo album, and has been involved in 150 other projects during his 25-year career. Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti from Colombia is a world-class singer and multimedia performer. Both partners live in Amsterdam and recorded the album MESTIZX, which they will present in Prague, in Chicago. Here, South American traditional music meets avant-garde, art-punk, electronica and minimalism to create exploding futuristic discoveries. The lineup is rounded out by the jazz and improvisational scene’s greatest talents: keyboardist Ben Boye, bassist Matt Lux and trumpet player James McClure. Their music resonates with the aesthetics of a wide range of musical pioneers, from The Ex to iconic experimenters like Juan Molina of Argentina and Café Tavba of Mexico.
The third performer at Open Air is the French-Greek band Deli Teli. Do we know Greek music? Greeks claim that their culture is a victim of stereotypes created by foreigners. Deli Teli are correcting this false mirror. They are returning to the music that Greeks played for themselves, not for tourists. In the city’s taverns and fishermen’s spelunkers in the 1960s, a time when traditional music was undergoing a transformation. Electric instruments were coming into play, and a new generation was bringing revolutionary aesthetics – Farfisa keyboards and wailing electrified bouzouki played in wild, Greco-Turkish rhythms. At the core of Deli Teli’s style is tsifteteli, which refers to several things at once: rhythmic construction, fun in semi-legal taverns, and belly dancing that fuses Greek music with Middle Eastern styles. Deli Teli’s concerts are characterized by an infectious energy and a subtle dose of Mediterranean drama, and a number of forgotten hits that once set Athens on fire.
MORE PERFORMING ARTISTS SOON!
