Respect Festival 2024

Respect Festival, 27th edition, Prague – a zone of tolerance full of music, rhythms, colours and flavours from all over the world. Respect Festival is the most varied mix of well-known, proven stars and new, equally good discoveries. Respect Festival is dedicated to Karel Schwarzenberg, who was at its birth. The author of this year’s visual is František Skála.

10 bands from 10 countries will perform at the Open Air on 15–16 June. From Israel will come Voices of Yemen, presenting ancient Jewish rituals from the Yemeni desert, produced by Shanir Blumenkranz (John Zorn, Yo-Yo Ma). Hypnotic bass riffs along with the perfect mix of dub, punk and global influences will be brought by global music pioneer and co-founder of Public Image Ltd Jah Wobble and The Invaders of the Heart. Mongolia's Khusugtun will perform raw guttural chants with polyphony and galloping horse rhythms. The African continent will be represented this year by Buena Vista of Egyptian music El Tanbura and Bamba Wassoulou Groove – rock and roll and hunting rituals from the Malian region of Wassoulou, or Moroccan trance rituals of Gnawa performed by the Lifting Spirits quartet, a project of the well-known guitarist and producer Justin Adams with the masterful Moroccan musician Mohamed Errebbaa. From Baluchistan, a crossroads of cultures on the border of Pakistan and Iran, comes the new world music star Ustad Noor Bakhsh. Traditional Estonian zither kannel will be presented by innovative minimalist songwriters Duo Ruut. The music from Turkish Kurdistan, represented last year by Meral Polat, will this time be represented by the winner of the prestigious German Gramophone Critics Award, Ali Doğan Gönültaş. Rounding out this year's diverse lineup will be the British Isles alt-folk duo The Breath, featuring the exceptional vocalist Ríoghnach Connolly and guitarist Stuart McCullum, a member of the Cinematic Orchestra.