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Countdown begins for Sur Jahan 2018

Sur Jahan (literally meaning Music World) is a unique world peace music festival of India held in Kolkata and Goa every February with the motto “Music for Peace, Music for All”. The three-day event brings together artists and musicians from home and abroad to celebrate cultural diversity through world music and facilitate exchange of ideas and sharing of experiences with the explicit aim to bridge minds and spread the culture of knowledge, understanding and tolerance.

Starting its journey as Sufi Sutra in Kolkata in 2011, it was renamed in 2017 to better reflect the wide range of music genres it curates. Artists from 26 countries and 12 Indian states have participated in the festival till date.

Sur Jahan simultaneously showcases creations and performances of India’s rural artists and crafts persons. In doing so, it rekindles our people’s urge to revisit and take pride in their own folk cultural heritage. The array of rich and living traditions of performing folk arts on offer, right from the martial Chau dance to the acrobatic Raibenshe, unfailingly enthrall both young and old and native and foreign spectators! In effect, over time, Sur Jahan has evolved into an architecture that offers multiple windows of opportunity and networking between the artists, musicians, audiences, business houses, event organizers, students, researchers and the global music, art and craft fraternity.

The festival is conceptualized, designed and implemented by banglanatak dot com, a 17-year-old social enterprise based in Kolkata and in consultative status with the UNESCO’s ICH Committee and United Nations Economic and Social Council (UN ECOSOC). The Goa edition of Sur Jahan is co-hosted by the Department of Art and Culture, Government of Goa, and the Kala Academy of Goa.

Sur Jahan today is a signature non-commercial festival of both Kolkata and Goa, drawing teeming crowds cutting across all divides of age and community.

We have the pleasure to announce that among the five international music groups we are hosting in Sur Jahan 2018, one is led by WOMEX Lifetime Award winner Cheikh Lo of Senegal. The other teams include the globally acclaimed Ethiopian & Italian fusion folk band Atse Tewodros Project, Hungary’s renowned folk music team Muzsikas, Muzykanci of Poland which represents the best of Polish folk, and Tuuletar, an all-women A Cappella band of Finland named after the Finish Goddess of the Wind. Sharing stage with them will be our especially groomed bands including Folks of Bengal. Here is a sneak peek into the fare on offer. Enjoy it and join us at the festival!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gp6-v8SlwVM


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