One of India’s biggest multicultural festivals, the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival, is returning in 2023 on Saturday, February 4. The nine-day festival, organised by the Kala Ghoda Association, will host a wide array of programmes in over 14 domains such as dance, music, literature, theatre, food, cinema, stand-up comedy, street art, urban design, architecture and more.
Date, time and theme of the festival
The Kala Ghoda Arts Festival will be organised from February 4 to 12, 10 am to 10 pm every day.
The theme of the festival is “Past <> Forward”. The festival will host a wide array of programmes in cinema, dance, food, heritage walks, visual art, literature, music, stalls, stand-up comedy, street, urban design and architecture, theatre, and workshops.
The festival will be hosted at 10 iconic venues in the Kala Ghoda area of South Mumbai. Some of the older venues include the K Dubash Marg, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya and Cross Maidan and the new additions include YB Chavan Centre, IF.Be, and the Cooperage Bandstand Garden.
Entry to the festival will be free. However, the number of visitors may be restricted as per the venue’s capacity.
All you need to know about Kala Ghoda Festival
Founded in 1999, the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival has become one of the biggest street art festivals in the country. It draws visitors from Mumbai and all over the world. With the aim of promoting arts, crafts and cultural heritage, the funds raised from the festival every year are directed towards the restoration efforts in the area undertaken by the Kala Ghoda Association.
Highlights of the festival
The major highlights as per an Indulgeexpress report are, novelist and essayist Amit Chaudhary’s unique talk about his book Finding The Raga, and Jerry Pinto’s talk with Jane Borges about his book The Education of Yuri.
The heritage walks by Khaki Tours are to be conducted around Mumbai’s iconic places and buildings. The walk will feature renowned architects Brinda Somaya and Nandini Sampat, Kamal Malik, Arjun Malik, and Puran Kumar.
The festival will feature stand-up gigs by Deepika Mhatre, Sonali Thakkar, Kajol Srinivasan, Siddharth Dudeja, Aditya Gundeti, Anirban Dasgupta, Aayushi Jagad, Supriya Joshi, Abish Mathew and more.
It will also feature food and handicraft stalls to pottery markets.
The festival will have a gala closing with a cultural rendezvous with the 2000s fusion-blues band, Colonial Cousins, who will be reuniting for the festival.
(Edited by : Sudarsanan Mani)
