Truncated Marghazi music festival to be held online and offline
Margazhi music festival will be truncated in terms of the number of days, as well as the number of concerts this year.
The Margazhi music festival this year will be truncated in terms of the number of days as well as the number of concerts in view of the Covid-19 situation due to the threat of the newly found variant Omicron.
Many sabhas have decided to have only online concerts while others have truncated offline concerts, and some others are going for both online and offline concerts.
Generally, the sabhas across Chennai city have music festivals in the Tamil month of Margazhi, between December and January. The festival, which will begin from December 15 or 16, will have namasankeerthanam lectures in the mornings, performances by upcoming artistes or instrumental players in the afternoons and performances by senior or popular artistes singing in the evenings. The festival will go on till January 1.
The sabhas could not hold the festival last year due to COVID-19 and this year, many sabhas have decided to hold the festival on fewer days but it will be mandatory for the rasikas (audience) to wear masks and use sanitizers frequently.
“The Chennai Corporation has allowed us to hold the festival but wants us to strictly follow the SOP (Standard Operating Procedures). We have assured the Corporation to follow the SOP strictly,” said Parthasarathi Swami Sabha’s secretary M Krishnamurthy.
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The music festival in Chennai’s oldest sabha, the Parthasarathi Swami Sabha, will start on December 23 and end on December 29. “We used to have more than 100 concerts every year, but now the number of concerts has come down to 30 and if the COVID-19 situation will be better, we will have a second phase from January 1 to 5,” said Krishnamurthy.
Krishnamurthy said that he still has some concerns but both the artistes as well as the rasikas, want the festival to be held.
“We were ready to have the festival on normal days but now the Omicron variant is threatening the world. So, we have decided to hold the festival only from December 15 to 27. The number of concerts is down to 13 and only in the evenings, and dance concerts are down to 13, also in the evening,” said Krishna Gana Sabha’s CEO Sashwathi Prabhu.
The sabha will host the namasankeerthanam every morning, from December 23 to January 1.
Music Academy and a few other sabhas have decided to have only online concerts and the Academy, which is famous for giving Sangeetha Kalanidhi award to senior artistes, has canceled it for the second year and has also decided to go fully online.
Bharathiya Vidya Bhavan, Narada Gana Sabha and a few others have decided to have both online and offline festivals.
“Last year we all heard artistes sitting in our house. But listening live is something which one has to feel. In the house, there will be various disturbances and I am waiting to hear artistes live,” said M Nirmala, an audience of the music festival.
In 2017, Chennai was included in the UNESCO Creative Cities Network for its musical contribution.
