After a gap of five years, Northeast India’s biggest home-grown musical property, Guwahati International Music Festival, is back with its third edition on February 8 this year.
The 3rd edition of the Guwahati International Music Festival will be held at Pragjyoti ITA Centre for Arts, Machkhowa on February 8. The one-day music festival will showcase various international performances along with classical guitar workshops to lecture-cum-demonstrations on indigenous folk music.
Organized by Eastern Beats Music Society in collaboration with North Eastern Council, Government of India and Assam Tourism, the 3rd Guwahati International Music Festival will witness performances by more than 150 artists from 5 countries.
A brainchild of Northeast-based writer and cultural activist Aiyushman Dutta, the idea of Guwahati International Music Festival was mooted way back in 2010 in order to provide a platform wherein musical maestros from across the globe can share stage and collaborate with our indigenous music and cultural practitioners.
In the first two editions, the festival had helped create new vistas for cultural collaborations of our topmost northeastern folk exponents with the finest of musicians from Goa, Nepal, UK, USA, Germany, China, Bangladesh, and the like.
Some of the artists in this year’s line-up include eminent classical guitarist and composer Matt Bacon from US, Thailand-based guitar maestro Padet Netpakdee, radical Sufi and jazz musician Manmohan Thapaliyal (Nepal), three-time Grammy nominated Naga folk fusion band Abiogenesis, amongst many others.
Besides workshops on guitar and lecture-demonstrations on north-eastern folk music, the festival will also showcase a unique orchestra of 100 sitars led by Guru Hem Hazarika followed by the unveiling of his newly developed musical instrument – the Hem Veena.
Socially conscious rock bands like Cultivators, Doorbin, amongst others will also perform at the event.
Assamese filmmaker Bidyut Kotoky’s much acclaimed documentary, Guns & Guitars, will also be screened at the festival. Incidentally, this will be the first screening of this documentary which has won several awards at number of prestigious film festivals across the world.
