Drum beats were heard at a distance from where the stage was set at Sinnaya Gardens on Rock Beach on Friday on the occasion of ‘A Bite of France’, an Indo-French food festival. As the audience moved to look for the musicians, they stormed dancing past and occupied the stage.
For those familiar with Tamil folk music, it wasn’t difficult to identify the music with Thappattam.
But what came as a surprise was relating the traditional Tamil folk beats with the performers from the French Island.
Reunion of cultures
Calling themselves Tambours Sacre, the group from Reunion Islands located in the middle of Indian Ocean, showed what happens when drums from Tamil Nadu travel to Reunion Islands to mix with other culture. “It is Tamil beat mixed with French music,” told Philippe Romana, founder of Tambours Sacre.
“Few instruments are from Africa, India, Europe and other countries of the world. Our music is the reflection of an amalgamation of culture, race, religion and language,” he said.
Before Tambours Sacre began their performance on stage, they eulogised the musical band Domus Dei comprising students from Lycee Francais International French School in Puducherry. They entertained the audience playing their own compositions in French.
The young performers from Reunion Islands started their performance dancing to music related to volcano. True to the words of Mr. Romana, the music was volcanic. The audience jived to the drum beats and dancers enthralled the audience with their synchronised dance moves.
Celebrating the roots
Dedicating the first performance to their ancestors, most of whom travelled from Tamil Nadu, he said: “This music is to share love, happiness and beauty of the world. When we come to a country, we belong to it because we are humans. Reunion Island is a reunion of all cultures, races.”
Following the volcanic music, they demonstrated their way of celebrating Deepavali, a festival of lights.
For this occasion, Sinnaya Gardens turned into a gourmet paradise with the most popular restaurants setting up stalls to serve the unique taste of Puducherry blending in its influences of Vietnam and French cuisines. After relishing the delicious exotic cuisines, the visitors relaxed at the photo-op created at the venue.
The festival was organised by Tablo Noir, a design studio in Chennai, along with Puducherry Tourism.
