Making the most of music

A popular music festival has brought a mix of contemporary French music and young Indian talent.

The French never needed much of an excuse for merrymaking but the Fete de la musique, or World Music Day as it's called elsewhere, has been welcomed back enthusiastically each year by music lovers for its vitality.

The festival was started in 1982 by the famous French politician and culture minister Jack Lang as a day (June 21) dedicated to musical diversity and free expression. Lang was probably just maintaining the symbolic association of the summer solstice as a date for celebration.

On the day amateur musicians are encouraged to spread out on the streets, free concerts with popular musicians make great music accessible to all and, most importantly, there is no restriction on decibel levels all through the night.

The spirit quickly spread to other parts of Europe and then passed around to all Francophonic cities from Kenya to Uganda and Hong Kong. This year the bug, labelled "" a little provocatively "" French Kiss 2007, has spread to India. and nine cities are currently being treated to a convergence of contemporary French music and young Indian musical talent.

"The Alliance Francaise and French Embassy have been organising musical soirees on the occasion for a while, but this is the first time the scale of the event has matched a national tour," says Sam Lal, CEO RIFF Entertainment, the event organisers.

Here to affirm that with music, language is no barrier, will be three contemporary acts from France. Emily Loizeau is an author, composer and vocalist who has often been dubbed the French Tori Amos. Anais, who was the lead singer of popular French band Opossum, is said to have a distinctly accoustic hip-hop vibe.

The two, along with the throaty, electric guitar-toting rock vocalist Mademoiselle K will make up the French fraction. There are also nine young Indian bands like No Idea, SOAP and Span. "We've chosen opening acts that offer a stylistic fit to the main act without being too similar," suggests Lal.

The tour, which kicked off on June 20 in Chandigarh, Pune and Kolkata, will conclude on the 26th in Bangalore. The organisers are expecting upwards of 8,000 music lovers to rock to the beats across the tour. The axis of the event, on June 21, has been reserved for the superclub Ministry of Sound in New Delhi. And in the true spirit of things, there is no paid entry; free passes were distributed to anyone interested in attending.

"We need more forums like this that give due credit to non-Bollywood musical talent," says Lal. In fact, across the world, World Music Day has developed into an opportunity for industry stakeholders in each country to make a case for various issues, like taking a stand against censorship. There are also several copycat versions staged to leverage brand visibility for associating sponsors or promote certain emerging talents.

While the event in India this year is restricted to stage acts, Lal is hoping that sometime soon they will be able to mirror the street-level carnival atmosphere of Paris. Even night-time sound restrictions haven't been waived here and events will wrap up by 10.30 pm everywhere except Delhi.

And no sooner has French Kiss been kicked off than ideas have started flowing for next year. Lal would love to take the tour to cities in the North-east, where there is a vibrant rock culture.

He also suggests that the venues will get bigger and there will be multiple show pavilions where not just musicians but other performing artistes will showcase their talents and that the show will be spread through the day. "Now that we've got it up and running, anything is possible," says Lal indefatigably.