Fanfare Ciocarlia and Tcha Limberger's Budapest Gypsy Orchestra May 17, 2008

Plus DJ provided by Balkan Beats UK

Light the taper. It's fireworks time as Brighton Festival heads out East for an exclusive and incendiary gypsy music double-header.

'Speed daemons' Fanfare Ciocarlia began life as a village wedding band in the remote mountains of north-east Romania. Today the 2006 winners of BBC Radio 3's World Music Award for Europe are the most famous gypsy band in the world, fuelling a global Balkan beats revolution with their dizzying brand of roaring Roma funk and high velocity Eastern European dance music.

Blind Belgian violinist Tcha Limberger hails from a famous family of manouche musicians, steeped in the gypsy jazz legacy of Django Reinhardt. Drawn to Hungarian music from an early age, Tcha spent three years studying its roots in Budapest. Now, with his hand-picked ensemble of Hungary's finest gypsy players, he revisits the heartland of Budapest cafe culture.

'A band of speed daemons laughing its way across the bumpiest musical terrain' The New York Times on Fanfare Ciocarlia

Official Website: http://www.brightonfestival.org/Event_Details.aspx?eid=2714