Udaipur the Venice of the East, hosted the first edition of India's first World Music Festival. The musical extravaganza brought together more than 100 global artists from over 12 countries including Spain, Ghana, Venezuela, Italy, France and India among many others. The festival also marked the celebrations of 60 years of the relations between Spain and India.The first session held at the Fateh Sagar Paal where Mathias Duplessy & Mukhtiyar Ali performed with the fusion of Qawwali, followed by another rhythm of Morocco by the artist Oum. Mukhtiyar Ali, who belongs to the 26th generation of the Merasi community which has kept alive the oral tradition of Sufiana Qalam. The group sang ‘Tere Ishq Nachaya’, ‘Ramta Jogi’ and ‘Fanny Re’.Sonam Kalra and Sufi Gospel project took the centre stage with the magnificent spiritual aroma over the lakeside. Jazz Fusion by Italy Meets India and gripping musical presentation by Family Antarctica also performed at the crowd packed auditorium.With the first ever World Music Festival, the aim was to establish an annual signature event in Rajasthan and at the same time establish Udaipur as a major destination for World Music in South Asia. An event of this scale is being designed to cater to the music lovers cutting across barriers of age and walks of life. The event is going to be conducted every year at the same time, the festival will feature unparalleled live performances with the city of lakes as a background and will celebrate cultural diversity at its best.Sanjeev Bhargava, festival director for the Udaipur World Music Festival and founder of Seher that organized this festival, is a veteran of many such festivals which are important fixtures on India's cultural calendar. These include the Ananya the dance festival, Bhakti Utsav and South Asian Bands festival to name a few.Talking about the musical event he says, "In the name of world music, a lot of genres get circulated in Indian cities which are not really world music. The idea behind this festival was to present the vast repertoire of world music to Indian audiences and to those visiting India and are willing to partake the culture of this country."On choosing Udaipur as the venue he says, "The most important thing working for Udaipur is its infrastructure. When we were in talks with the Rajasthan chief minister, she was clear that she wanted to broadbase the cultural-tourism offerings of the state and therefore wanted activities in as many cities of the state as possible. Jaipur was bypassed because it is already chock-a-block with festivals. Udaipur, on the other hand, is not just an internationally renowned tourist destination but is also very well connected with both Delhi and Mumbai. We hope to establish Udaipur as a major destination for World Music over the next three years."One of the most popular Fado singers from Portugal, Carminho who has captured the imagination of the West, performed for the first time in India. The world music festival remains incomplete without the magical Flamenco which was being represented by one of the best Flamenco groups Tamara & Fernando. PASO A DOS from Spain.The evening came alive with the instrumental Spanish Flamenco guitar and dance performance and the unique African beat music by Dobet Gnahoré a Grammy award winner from the Ivory Coast. The last event of the evening was by Papon and East India Company, the rock fusion band. Papon sang his popular Bollywood songs – ‘Kyun’and ‘Jeena’. Keeping with the tune of Udaipur World Music Festival – focus on folk songs, he also sang Assamese songs. Follow@ARTINFOIndia
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