Soak in the folk and classical culture during Dasara from October 5 to 14, as the authorities plan more than 150 programmes spread over seven major venues.
While the list of all the artistes to perform during the festivities is yet to be finalised, the authorities have lined up legendary Hindustani vocalist Pandit Jasraj, Sufi musician Mir Mukhtiyar Ali, Carnatic vocalist Nityashree Mahadevan, Louis Banks known for Jazz and fusion, and one of the few female Tabla players, Rimpa Shiva, for the palace programmes. A team of 40 Russian artistes too will perform on the palace premises.
The Dasara cultural sub-committee members, who met here on Wednesday, said in all there will be around 155 cultural programmes spread over seven venues for this year’s festivities.
The seven venues are the Palace (29 programmes), Jaganmohan Palace (27 programmes), Kalamandira (27) Ganabharathi (27) Town Hall (27), Kuppanna Park (9), while there will be nine programmes at the Small Clock Tower. In a bid to present a blend of local, State and national artistes, the authorities have decided to accord importance to local and State artistes at venues other than the Palace where the cream of the artistes in the field of music and dance will be selected.
It has also been decided to split the Palace cultural programmes into two halves; there will be folk music from 5.30 p.m. to 6 p.m., followed by performance by artistes from other States between 6 p.m. and 6.30 p.m.
State artistes of national importance will perform from 6.30 p.m. to 8 p.m., while internationally renowned artistes have been accorded the 8 p.m. to 9.30 p.m. slot.
It has also been decided to give the Sangeeta Vidwan Award to an outstanding artiste on the day of the inauguration. The existing practice was to give away the award on the last day of the cultural programme.
With the objective of encouraging local talents and providing a platform for upcoming artistes, the sub-committee has also arranged a cultural programme on October 6 from dawn to dusk (Suryaninda Chandranedege) and music, dance and other cultural programmes will be held from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Lending a slice of pan-Indian touch to the cultural programmes will be the artistes from other parts of the country who will be sent by the different cultural centres of the government.
Artistes from North-eastern States will present Bihu dance, while those from Kerala will showcase Kalaripayattu.
The South Central Cultural Zone at Nagpur and the South Zone Cultural Centre at Thanjavur will also depute artistes to reflect the art-forms of their respective regions.
Sub-committee Chairman K.R. Mohan Kumar said 682 artistes applied for performing during Dasara, of which 196 artistes have been screened so far.
