After a two-year hiatus, music fest to breathe life back into city

Culture Trail

Falah Faisal

Fete De La Musique, the music festival organised by Alliance Francaise on World Music Day, has been a Bengaluru staple for almost four decades since its inception in 1981.
However, owing to the pandemic it could be celebrated in a full-fledged manner for the last couple of years. Now, it is finally returning and it’s bigger than ever happening across three venues this weekend that include Alliance Francaise, The Bangalore School of Music, and for the first time ever also Bangalore Creative Circus.

Speaking to us about Bangalore Creative Circus’ involvement, co-founder Manisha Vinod says “We are happy to be co-hosting the festival with Alliance Francaise and Bangalore School of Music. The power of music and its ability to influence our emotions, thoughts, wellbeing, and behaviour towards others, is often underestimated. It has by far proven to be one of the best mediums of communication. While one must enjoy music just as is, for flourishing cities, you need to harness the powerful nature of music, to solve the world’s problems.”

The festival will feature many genres of music including classical music, jazz, rock, world music, and traditional music. Some of the artists who will be featured are newcomers like Ashwin Adiga with his band Go Funk Yourself, old-timers like Gopal Navale of Fundal who play folk rock, and even some students of Bangalore Music School.

“Someone to watch out for is Tanya Shankar. She is only 15 years old but has a powerhouse of a voice. She will be performing with her band the Tanya Shankar Collective at BCC,” says Manisha Vinod
The theme for this year is aptly chosen - ‘Back to Life’ as we slowly crawl out of our hovels into public spaces. Vinod explains “We are recollecting both audience and musicians. You always looked forward to World Music Day and you’d know Alliance would have a festival that would have a lot of music on display. The last couple of music has been tough on everyone and we are finally having live music again. We’re bringing music back to Bengaluru.”