The dance of the dervish from Egypt, the wafting sounds of the flute, the sound of
ghumots and the full throated vocals of Bengali folk, will reverberate on the
lawns of the ICG as Sur Jahan returns to Goa yet again
Sur Jahan, earlier known as Sufi Sutra, is a World Peace Music
Festival ‘Music for All, Music for Peace’ is the mantra of this non-commercial
festival that celebrates cultural diversity. Termed as a ‘people’s festival’ by
the media worldwide, Sur Jahan has evolved as a Headliner Festival in both
Kolkata and Goa.
This year, six international music bands, namely, Mario Lucio
(Cape Verde), Babra (Hungary), Liona and Serena Strings (Spain), Madagan
(Northern Ireland), Mawlawyiah ( Egypt) and Monsieur Doumani (Cyprus) and
others will perform at the three-day festival at the International Centre Goa
(ICG), Dona Paula.
Dr Pushkar Sinha, Director, ICG expresses his happiness of being
able to host the prestigious music festival. There will be six stalls of Goan
handicrafts displayed at the ICG venue.
Emphasising that the festival is about music, peace and love,
founder-director, Banglanatak.com, Amitava Bhattacharya spoke about the key
features of the festival, such as its use of ethnic traditional acoustic
instruments, the variety of music, good vocals and dance that adds colour to
the festival.
Apart from the evening performances, there will also be daytime
workshops by the performers that will enable the audience to experience and
interact with the performances on a more personal level. As past editions have
shown, they also provide interesting opportunities of collaboration among
participating groups and artistes, leading to an integration of cultures and a
vibrant assimilation of various music genres. The festival ends with members of
all the teams coming together to jam and create a unique melodious crescendo.
Amitava praised the WOMEX lifetime award winner from Cape Verde,
Mario Lucio who will be performing with his band. “Mario’s talent as a musician
was noticed when he was 12-years-old; he would play several instruments, write
poems and compose lyrics. He is also a lifetime researcher of traditional
music, an activity which provides modernity, originality and poetry. His
performance is one to watch out for at this festival,” says Amitava.
“Babra is a band that has performed at several festivals such as
Bela Bartok National Concert in MUPA Palace of Arts and has played at Hungarian
Showcase Day as a part of WOMEX 2015 in Budapest, and is something to lookout
for. Also, Bengal Goa Musical Ensemble collaboration will bring folk music and
artistes from both Bengal and Goa together,” he adds.
The festival will be inaugurated at ICG’s Kaz Lawn at 6:30pm
followed by the concert by Babra (Hungary) at 7:30pm and Mawlawiyah (Egypt) at
8:30pm. On Day 2, Liona and Serena Strings (Spain) will perform at 6:30pm,
followed by Bengal Goa Ensemble (India) at 7:30pm and Mario Lucio (Cape Verde)
at 8:30pm. On the last day of the festival, Madagan (Northern Ireland) will
have their concert at 6:30pm, with Monsieur Doumani (Cyprus) at 7:30pm and the
closing ceremony at 8:30pm.
There will also be day time workshops, where each of the bands
will speak about their music, their intruments and their traditional roots
which has influenced their music
Showcasing of rural handicrafts will happen on all three days of
the festival, from 4pm to 9pm at the poolside at ICG.
The
festival is non-ticketed and open to all.
