Mumbai’s Patel Cultural Foundation with the support from Ministry of Culture, Government of India, has organised the five-day festival of classical dance and music in Junagadh (Gujarat) commencing from Friday 8th November and concluding on 13th November. While the festival will be presented at the local Shamal Das Gandhi Town Hall, the programme on Saturday 9th November will be held at the Agriculture University auditorium. The festival will feature varied classical dances, classical music, both instrumental and vocal by talented performers from across the country.
This annual festival is one of its kind in a place like Junagadh, where such festivals are a rare find and the localities do not have the commercial infrastructure to organise festivals of such a magnitude, nevertheless it is the passion and concern to promote young performers and classical.music and dance, that keeps the show on for which the credit goes to founder of Patel Cultural Foundation- MK Patel and local support from personalities like Shivraj Hirpara and Kishor Chawda.
The performers are given a duration of 30 minutes and it may exceed in the case of duets and trio performances. There will be five performers every evening, with one or two music recitals. Among the popular performers includes Kathak by noted kathak exponent Dr Tina Tambe from Mumbai, trio Bharatanatyam by three male dancers, Tamohar Biswas, Shubham Khowal and Saurabh Tiwari, Percussion music ensemble by noted mridangam maestro Satish Krishnamurthy and his group from Mumbai, Odissi duet by Aditi and Dolla. One of the most interesting musical percussions will be Tabla Kacheri by six players that include female player Dr Kushbu Lal. Bharatanatyam by Shamal Pawar and her disciples, Mohiniattam by Sangeetha Rajeev and much more. The compere for the festival will be Anand Singh and Narhari and the media partner is Insync.
While most of the performers are from Maharashtra and Gujarat, MK Patel says “While everyone is interested in the festival but when it comes to financing, people just back out, with hardly any corporate support it is not easy to organise the festival but the warmth and love I get from the artists is amazing”.