The Mahindra
Open Drive has been conceived for the city goer who needs to break away from the humdrum for a
weekend filled with adventure, music and positive vibes. While the ‘drive’
refers to the suggested way to come to the festival, it also refers to the
positive emotion of being motivated to do good, to be driven. This 2-day
destination festival includes a road trip, which begins in early November from
four Indian cities – Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad and Bengaluru – culminating in a
music and food festival on November 8-9 in Goa.
With a humanitarian
spirit at its core, the festival will use music, the arts and culture to engage
audiences and allow them to experience and understand this cause through
storytelling and entertainment. It will comprise a souk – showcasing local
artisan-crafted products, an exhibition of Goa’s culture, performances by
international artistes, installation artists and a local and international
cuisine feast.
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The festival will
feature a mix of international and local artistes including headliners ‘Chico
and The Gypsies’, who would accompany world and folk music sensations Raghu
Dixit, Harouna Samake, Brooklyn Funk Essentials and Nikhil Dsouza. This
eclectic mix of artistes will embody the soundscape of the festival and
complement the culture and ethnicity of Goa as a community.
The festival will be
preceded by fundraising initiatives through which festival goers can pledge
monetary aid to a cause they believe in and draw attention to NGOs and partner
organisations actively involved in making a difference. This can be done by
raising funds or donating to one of the 20 partner NGOs spread across various
causes. Essentially, the fundraising is intended to support causes like
Education, Healthcare, Safety, Livelihood, Environment and Rights and
Inclusion.
As for the entries,
Mahindra Open Drive is a one of a kind festival where you have to earn an
invite. This can be achieved by buying donor passes – with the contributions
going directly toward one of the partner NGOs chosen by the festival goer.
Supporting Mahindra
is their official philanthropy partner for this initiative, United Way Mumbai –
an establishment whose fundamental objective is to bring together individuals,
companies, NGOs and government agencies to enhance community conditions with
deeds that go beyond short-term charity.
Speaking
about associating with M&M Ltd. for the Mahindra Open Drive, Jayanti
Shukla, CEO of United Way Mumbai said, “Mahindra Open Drive gives the socially
conscious generation of today a platform to convene and support causes while
they enjoy the process and celebrate the successes of our real heroes, the
diverse NGOs who are partnering with us at the event. United Way Mumbai has
been associated with numerous innovative community impact projects and it is
exciting for us to be a part of an event that is fun yet with a strong element
of giving back to the less privileged.” Brooklyn Funk Essentials and Harouna
Samake are making their India debut at this festival.
