 "Udaipur Music Festival")
It’s 6.30 p.m. on a Saturday evening. As Spain’s Juanma Zurano and Tamara Lucio (and their troupe of musicians) take center-stage at Udaipur’s Railway Training Institute grounds, the crowd has swelled to over 10,000. Locals have been strolling in – in dribs and drabs – from all parts of the city for the first evening of SEHER’s world music festival.
As Lucio – in a red and black dotted flamenco gown brightened further by the psychedelic lights - begins her dramatic performance – flamenco interspersed with energetic tap dancing – Udaipur couldn’t quite believe its eyes. You could see the locals – the crowd was largely young - awestruck as they tried to absorb the visual extravaganza unfolding before them – alien to almost everyone in the crowd. Striking lights and an attractive stage added to the awe and intrigue of the moment.
The duo – Juanma Zurano comes in looking ready for a bull-fight in his black attire with a red waist band but breaks into dance instead – kept the young audience riveted for close to 45 minutes as they tapped their feet with such vigour that their legs seemed like they were made of jelly.
But the show got even more alluring when Lucio – in a new white gown with a long trail of tassles and furls – managed to create chemistry with Zurano (also in white) -handling her large burgundy stole like it was a handkerchief with deft and grace. Every flash of leg led to a howl of catcalls that drowned out the music accompanying the dancing and it would be fair to say that Udaipur probably didn’t sleep a wink that night.
The two-day festival was a challenge for music lovers– spread as it was across three venues in the city. The morning private sessions –soothing and calm – were held at Jagmandir in Lake Pichola (stone throw from the Taj’s Lake Palace) – made accessible by a short boat ride. The stage was set with the lake as the backdrop and the sessions were crowded despite being labeled private.
In the afternoon, audiences headed to the Fatepal Sagar lake – a ten-minute cab ride from the City Palace and the old part of town where most people tend to stay. The nicest of the three venues, a stunning stage of red and orange (with an equally eye catching logo of the festival) greeted the audience – surrounded by water on all sides. Although the musicians had the sound of the strong winds to contend with, the visual relief provided by the water and the cool breeze made the afternoon sun seem less oppressive.
The three-hour sessions on the two days had almost six acts (including two Indian troupes). The instrumental quintet (comprising four artistes from Serbia, Netherlands, Iran and India) on day one were a big draw as was Moroccan soul artist Oum on the second day. In her attractive yellow attire and jewellery, Oum managed to transcend boundaries through her lilting tunes and for a bit it almost seemed like the audience was familiar with the Moroccan lyrics and music.
The evening sessions were by far the most crowded – non ticketed, well planned and executed, it never felt like a crush - with locals turning up in large numbers. The Raghu Dixit project and Papon and the East India company – the last acts on the two evenings - were absolute hits with the young audience – several of whom sang along and danced with the bands. Grammy award winner Dobet Gnahore’s African beat music from the Ivory Coast also resonated well with the crowd who were quite unwilling to let her go. She was an athlete, dancer and musician – all rolled into one – as her sexy cat-like movements on stage proved.
The Udaipur music festival held many firsts for the city. Udaipur has never hosted a music festival on this scale. Moreover, unlike smaller music shows and programmes where typically Indian classical musicians come and perform, this was an international festival with bands from across the world. A young couple standing next to me said that they had never heard of Flamenco – let alone seen it.
But it wasn’t just locals who attended. Flights to and from Udaipur were full of festival artists and people who had flown down especially to attend it – a testament of the growing popularity of music festivals - as I discovered on both my flights. If it becomes a yearly feature, it may end up competing with neighbouring Jodhpur’s RIFF (Rajasthan International Folk festival) which has carved its own place in the festival space in India already.
