MUMBAI: In a joint initiative to revive the now extinct bandstand culture of Mumbai, the Indiatourism Mumbai (Ministry of Tourism, government of India) and Bombay Chamber of Commerce and industry have come together to organise an 18 week long musical fest.
The Chamber has taken the initiative to revive the unique bandstand culture which was prevalent during the British era. The regimental tunes in the 1850s were a great attraction for the common masses and were played every evening after sunset. To promote the culture and hertige of the city of Mumbai, Bombay Chamber will begin hosting live performances starting from 6 February every Saturday until 30 May at the Hanging Gardens in south Mumbai. These performances would be free to the public.
Earlier in 2007-08, the revival was initiated with traditional folk performances and dances from various states to add the cultural essence to this initiative. The focus this year will be on youth and college bands providing them a platform to showcase their talent. Traditional folk performances and dances will be held on 29 May. To attract the Bollywood music lovers, there is an ‘Oldies Night’ to be held on 13 March, in which old Kishore Kumar songs will be crooned to entertain the audience.
Bombay Chamber of Commerce and Industry joint director, Kavita Sharma said, “Last year the initiative was undertaken for Bandra bandstand as well as for Hanging garden. Bandra initiative did not do well but Hanging garden was quite a success. Hence this year we decided to go ahead with it. We have called a lot of youth bands to attract enough interest from the yougsters. We also made sure that different genre of music is being played.”
A band competition is also being held and few of the chosen bands will perform at the grand finale. Besides the independent rock bands, a jazz band from France will also perform.
Apart from Tata Sons, Tata Docomo and Standard Chartered who are the main sponsors of the event, Furtados is the gear sponser of the initiatve and Blue Frog will bring some of the local as well as international musicians to play at the event. Radio Mirchi and Bombay Electric project will provide the required publicity. Radio Mirchi through its show Band Banaao Jeeturaj ko Sunnao will send a selected band to perform at the event. Bombay Electric project would be spreading awareness through social networking sites like Facebook to reach to the younger audience.