SCOTLAND’S first-ever Roma culture festival will take place in Glasgow later this month.

The two-day festival will showcase the colourful cultural heritage of Scotland’s Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities as well as Romanian, Polish, Slovak, Czech and Hungarian Roma communities.

The event will take place at the CCA on August 27 and 28. It has been organised by Ando Glaso, set up in 2016 to encourage greater understanding and participation in the cultural heritage of the Roma people in Scotland aiming at stimulating and advancing community cohesion that is built on respect for celebrating diverse cultural identities.

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The organisation was initiated by a dedicated group of Roma volunteers who shared the passion and desire to further encourage links between the Roma and Scottish diverse cultures at several levels including support and understanding through the promotion of arts and music programmes, educational workshops and seminars, conferences and events at local and national level.

Highlights of the festival will include the world premiere of Tales Of A Travelling Scotland, which explores Scotland’s vibrant Traveller communities through music, songs and storytelling, performed by legendary storyteller Jess Smith and accompanied by musicians Kevin Whyte, Ian MacGregor and Ciaran Ryan.

There will also be a live concert from ZOR, a band created and nurtured by Ando Glaso and made up of young Glasgow-based Roma men in their teens and 20s.