New life for an old estate

A new festival at Mumbai's Ballard Estate has been livening up weekends in a quiet neighbourhood

The guards outside Darabshaw House in Ballard Estate have only a vague clue why the otherwise quiet commercial neighbourhood has been changing a little every weekend. On Friday evenings, groups of people appear to fix lights on the Victorian and Italian Renaissance-style buildings, some of which are 100 years old. The next day, large numbers of people drop by and are admitted into barricaded areas of the streets from which the guards can catch the sights and sounds of merriment. "It seems to be something like the Kala Ghoda festival," one of them guesses. By the time they return to work on Monday, however, there is no trace of what happened.

To find out what goes on inside, they would need to pay an entry fee. These scenes are in fact part of the Ballard Estate festival, an attempt to rejuvenate the heritage precinct in south Mumbai that is owned and maintained by the Mumbai Port Trust. The idea, according to an announcement by the trust, was to showcase performing arts on weekends and public holidays when the Ballard Estate area is typically closed. The auction was won by Ferriswheel Entertainment, which reportedly pays a rent of around Rs 50,000 a day and handles the content and design of the proceedings.

A live painting installation at the Ballard Estate festival in Mumbai

  For inspiration, the team has been looking at global examples such as the Temple Street night market in Hong Kong, which features a mix of traders, opera singers and fortune tellers. Flea markets in New York and Melbourne are influences too. Flea markets have also been gaining popularity in Indian cities, although most of them are held once every few months. Unlike the annual two-week-long Kala Ghoda festival, this one pops up and disappears each week. After May, it will take a break for the monsoon and return in October. Thanks to this format and an offbeat venue, the organisers are still learning a few lessons. They need to use lightweight materials that can be raised and dismantled easily, for instance. Since it is a public space, effort is needed to bring a sense of hygiene.

Street artistes at the festival

The event opened late in January. The performers have been a mix of local musicians such as Sherrin Verghese and Sanam Band as well as headlining artists such as the Raghu Dixit Project and folk singer Mame Khan. Street magicians, jugglers and stuntsmen are also part of it. The event had 8,000 visitors during the first weekend but attendance fell to 5,000 in the next. Following that, interest has continued to vary. The big names pull crowds, says Ferriswheel founder Shubhra Bhardwaj, adding that the organisers will bring in more of them. The next edition will feature rapper Raftaar, while the art display will include six-foot-tall installations by Orijit Sen of characters from fairy tales.

Most of the action so far is restricted to the Ballard pier square, where a memorial stands for those who died in World War I. Eventually, Bhardwaj hopes to engage more streets of the neighbourhood. Among her ambitious plans is an open-air theatre with bean bags and cordless headphones.

The festival cannot be compared to any existing ones, says Bhardwaj. "We are just an urban space and suddenly we are open and accessible to people." The organisers do not want to disturb the region; they only wish to bring it back into use. Weekend office-goers are given a band to facilitate entry and exit. There are spaces for children and pets. As yet, the concept's success in drawing people has not been up to expectations, according to officials in the port trust's business development cell. Its accessibility has come into question, too, as visitors have to pay Rs 150 as entry fee. While it was envisioned to be free and open to all, a lack of sponsors has compelled organisers to levy a charge. At the moment, Bhardwaj admits, the festival is making losses and funds are sourced from the company's pocket. To convince advertisers that the festival can make money, it was necessary to sell tickets, she says. College students are allowed entry for free.

A performance by Raghu Dixit

As a commercial district - and one of the oldest in the city - Ballard Estate lost its sheen as areas such as Bandra-Kurla Complex and Andheri emerged. Banks and some offices of airlines and shipping companies have moved out. The companies that set up shop now are increasingly ones that stay for a few months until they find another space. After office hours when the last buses leave the area around 7 pm, it becomes a ghost town.

Although the port trust was reportedly even considering raising building rents in Ballard Estate to market levels, the festival, if it succeeds, could serve as an alternative to boost revenue. So far, money seems to have eluded the renewal of this once-bustling financial precinct.