Bangalore upholds the spirit of music

Usually, Fete de la Musique or World Music Day is marked each year by different French artists, each travelling to a different country, playing free concerts to promote amateur and professional music of all sounds, noises and melodies. But the idea has taken on a new dimension in the city with music hungry Bangaloreans hybridising the festival to World Music Days.
Several concerts have been organized across the city to celebrate the spirit of music.Besides the annual celebrations at Alliance, this year includes the Handshake festival at Chowdiah Hall, and other events such as the Big Junction Jam at Palace Grounds, which happened over the weekend. The culture in-charge at Alliance Francaise, Bangalore, Anuradha Narayan points out that the scale of this year’s celebrations are bigger than ever before. “Bangaloreans have lapped it up in a big way and the response has been overwhelming. It has, in fact, turned into World Music Days now. This year we have had over 40 bands playing across four days,” she says.
Lena Roucaute, the vocalist of French band Betty Argo, which is touring the country as part of World Music Day celebrations says, “Each city has been different, but Bangalore seems like the place where most bands find an audience. During the weekends I see that there are so many people playing so many different types of music at all these clubs.”
The musical diversity is reflected in the line-up for this year’s World Music Day celebrations. Theja Meru, president of the Rattle & Hum Music Society, is organising the Handshake Concert featuring Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhat and several north-eastern bands for the first time in Bangalore. He says, “We’ve heard a lot about Bangaloreans being big music lovers and we are excited to be performing here. What better way to bring people together than with music?”
These diverse musical tastes and appreciation of cultures do not come as a surprise to those associated with the music industry in Bangalore. Music expert Darshan Manakkal says, “International music is part of our culture, we’ve always gone out looking for something new to listen to.”
Venkat Vardhan,who heads an event management company, says that there is a difference between the audiences in Bangalore and other cities. “People in Bangalore don’t go to concerts because it’s a cool thing to do, they go because they really know their music,” he says.
“World Music Day is celebrated today across 110 countries but Bangalore has made it its own,” says Anuradha.