Three-day festival ‘The Music Stage’ concluded in Jaipur

The three-day music festival held at the Jawahar Kala Kendra concluded with a host of cultural activities and performances on Saturday evening.
It began with Morning Raag, in which Mahesha Ram Meghawal renditioned folk songs and bhajans by Kabir, Meera and Daadu. The concert in the evening opened with a Rajasthani folk music performance by

Raitila Band

, a mix of Manganiyar and Langa musicians, featuring duff and dayereh artiste Hamta Baghi from Iran. They performed Krishna Bhajan, a welcome song ‘Mithuda Mehmaan Ghar Aaya’ and a song for Diwali along with popular sufi numbers like Tere Ishq Nachaya and Chaap Tilak. The band members included Bundu, Bhutta and Sardar Khan on vocals, Zakir on khartaal, Shakur on morchang and algoza, Eklas and Aseem on sarangi, Lateef on dholak.

It was followed by a ghoomar performance by 20 artistes, directed by Kaushal Kant Panwar. The evening then proceeded with the international artistes for the day-

Gene Peterson

on drum kit and Beatboxer Tom Thum. Highlight of the evening was a fusion between the Rajasthani musicians and Gene Peterson and Tom Thum in which they played songs like ‘Anta Bahar Di Khabaran’, ‘Luna Gar’, ‘Kesariya Bana’, among others.

Human puppets at the Music Stage were also a major attraction

The cultural extravaganza then concluded with a finale performance in which all the artistes including Gene Peterson and Tom Thum performed together with 40 dancers, bringing an amalgamation of culture, music and dances. Traditional folk dances of Rajasthan like gair, ghoomar, fire dance and chari were also performed by the Rajasthani artists. In the early evening today, puppetry and human puppets, ‘Gair’, flute recital, ‘Algoza vaadan’ and ‘Nagada vaadan’ were also held across various venues at JKK.