festival

What is the environmental cost of a big music event? Can art afford to be for its own sake and not think about all the plastic bottles and banners left behind without being recycled? What about the emissions from generators or the decibel levels? These questions led Roshan Netalkar to come up with Echoes of the Earth (EOE), an annual music festival, three years ago. Held on the outskirts of Bengaluru on a sprawling 150-acre property, it was aimed at marrying music and art with the theme of sustainability. Netalkar hoped to prove that music festivals of such scale could…

Do adults go to watch children's plays? Or to be more precise, do adults go to watch children's puppet theatre...without children accompanying them? The answer, for me, was a resounding yes. I had been hoping to take my grandchildren to at least some of the puppet theatre festival be at Ranga Shankara, under the AHA! banner. The "Same-Same" theme of the festival. Pic: Deepa Mohan Language and music classes in the evenings prevented my grandchildren from coming along with me, but when a friend, Harini Srinivasa Rao, told me that she could not utilize her three tickets, I jumped at…

Queer Arts Movement India (QAMI) is four years old and the event’s theme this year is ‘One Love’. QAMI aims to provide a space for non-judgemental inclusion and acceptance of all marginalised communities. Having started out as a fundraising event, QAMI Habba today involves people from across the country. It serves as a space for dialogue, liberation of thoughts, and free expression of emotions. “The focus of QAMI is to make the mainstream audience understand about the queer community, through art,” says Romal. He believes that art is a medium that can make people look beyond their preset notions and…

Having heard about the   Dhaatu Puppet Festival   I went with my daughter and two grandchildren to watch the parade, which started from the Dhaatu Bus Stop in Banashankari,      and ended at the JSS Auditorium, where several shows are to be held over the weekend.   The parade was a riot of colour, as you can see from this video:   There were puppets and puppeteers from all over the world:   Here are two  home-made puppets...Vaishnavi, the young lady on the right, is looking as happy as her puppet !   The group all posed for…

Jakkur Kere Utsav is being held on Sunday, 20th November 2016, to celebrate the beautiful Jakkur Lake. Satya Foundation had initiated a citizen group called Jalaposhan in 2014 and has jointly adopted the lake for conservation. In its endeavor to make it a community space many programmes are hosted at the lake. This kere utsav is a good mix of them all. There is fitness, cultural, educational, recreational and fun. It is a sunrise to sunset fest. Visitiors are sure to love it. Do visit with family and friends.  

It was very pleasant to sit on the lawns of Bangalore's premier management institution. In the gathering dusk, people drifted in and took their seats. The stage was well-lit.  Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia started the evening off with sweet notes from his "bansuri", with the lilting evening raga, Madhuvanti. One can truly say that, with his flute, he literally breathes  his music! For the audience, also, the composition in raga Yaman that followed, and then a bhajan, breathed relaxation and serenity into them.   When one of the impresarios came up on stage, he wisecracked that when pretty girls appear, trouble…

It was by sheer chance that I happened upon the sight. I'd gone to see "Court" at Max Mueller Bhavan, and the house was not only full, there was no way to enter! So my friends and I went to "Murugan Idly Shop", and then walked back... and along a lane leading from the road on which we were walking, we saw a blaze of light. Though we were initially hesitant to walk in with our footwear, we found others doing so, and then went right up to the temple. We found the ground alight with lamps. Nearby was a…

It's unusual to have a festival only for instruments, and so it was interesting to attend the "Bangalore Harmonica and Reed Instruments Festival" at Ravindra Kalakshetra on the 22nd of November, 2015.   The predominant theme of the music seemed to be old Hindi movie songs, though a few Kannada movie songs were also played.     The festival went on from 10 am to 7pm and seemed to have a good attendance throughout the day.   Some of the children also enjoyed interacting with the audience to the beat of the music!   Here's one of the artistes, Ashok…

Prem Sagar says, "The kids had a lot of fun with crackers. Now, ensuring that their fun doesn't turn into someone else's job. It started with the kids cleaning up. Soon, others (elders) joined in. At 9.15 pm, we're done with crackers and the street is all clean now." Couldn't we all follow his example? Here is the photo of the children cleaning up.

  Women of the Tigala community looking their best during the Karaga festival at the Dharmarayaswamy Temple. The Tigalas, also referred to as Vanhikula Kshatriyas, are by tradition, gardeners and flower traders whose contribution in nurturing many of the city’s parks including Lalbagh is widely acknowledged. They believe that are the descendants of Veerakumaras –‘hero-sons’, a warrior clan that the mythological princess Draupadi put together to fight the demon Timarasura. A section of the Pete (old Bangalore) area is called Tigalarapete, recognising the predominance of the community in the region. They celebrate what is arguably Bengaluru’s biggest and most well-known…