As an art presenter, festival curator and tour producer, Mehmet DEDE has been involved in booking hundreds of local, national and international artists in the last 15 years. As co-founder of the NY Gypsy Festival, he has hosted shows with nearly 100 artists, including Gogol Bordello, Beirut becoming one of the premier world music festivals in the US. As talent buyer for East Village venue DROM he has presented over 600 shows. As a tour producer, he has arranged North American tours for European artists like Mahala Rai Banda and Fanfare Ciocarlia. He has co-produced, with the support of the Turkish Ministry of Culture & Tourism, the Istanbulive festival at Lincoln Center, with more than 20,000 people attending the first four editions. Dede has an M.A. from NYU in Music Business & Marketing. Dede was interviewed by The Wall Street Journal, The Huffington Post and The Star-Ledger and spoke at the Association of Performing Arts Presenters (APAP) and California Presenters conferences. He also has appeared on WKCR, WFMU, WNYC.