Meral Polat Trio

Respect Festival Open Air 2026 will take place on June 13 and 14 on Štvanice Island in Prague. Organizer’s description: This year’s program for Prague’s most significant global music festival spans a wide range—from the authentic roots of African villages to contemporary fusions born of artistic vision rather than production routines. The purely instrumental Egyptian-Belgian trio The Handover draws on folk melodies from the Nile basin, setting them within an almost psychedelic framework.

Kurdish folk music, raw groove and minimalistic blues arrangements returns to Prague. Singer and actress Meral Polat was born in the Netherlands, where her parents immigrated from Turkey to work. Her father was formally a gastarbaiter, but a poet at heart. Meral set his lyrics to music on her very special debut album. The singer's ancestors come from the Kurdish Alevi community, which, unlike the Islamic mainstream, allows for critical thinking and relies on individuality and education.