Romani Performance and Heritage Tourism: The Pilgrimage of the Gypsies at Les Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer

Every May some ten thousand Romanies (aka Gypsies) perform a pilgrimage to Les Saintes-Maries-de-le-Mer, a remote fishing village in the south of France. Their annual gathering has developed into a popular festival of Romani culture that spawns its own pilgrimage of tourists and journalists—as well as some tension between the townspeople and the Romani.