Kolkata: Bangla Sangeet Mela will be held in the districts from next year. The four-day musical event will be held in about 3 to 4 districts in 2024.
“Under the instructions of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Bangla Sangeet Mela will be held in 3 to 4 districts, besides Kolkata from next year. The aim is to showcase the talent of more and more next-generation musicians from different parts of the state,” Minister of State for Information and Cultural Affairs, Indranil Sen said on Saturday.
Sen announced that Bangla Sangeet Mela 2023 and Biswa Bangla Folk Culture Festival will be organised from December 25 to January 1 at eleven venues in Kolkata.
The 11 venues that will host the programme include Rabindra Sadan, Sisir Mancha, Hedua Park, Madhusudan Mukta Manch, Ektara Mukta Mancha, Deshapriya Park, Rishi Aurobinda Park (Netaji Nagar), Mukundapur Football Ground, Rajya Sangeet Akademi Mukta Manch and Charukala Parshad Mukta Manch. The musical programme will start at 5 pm on all days and more than 5,000 musicians and instrumentalists will be performing.
“The audition was held from December 4 to 9 after we received 2,000 new applications for performing at the fair.
For the first time, 600 new artistes will be participating in the Bangla Sangeet Mela who have been selected from the audition,” Sen added.
Apart from artistes from Kolkata, there will be participants from different districts across the state. Young artistes participating in various music competitions and workshops organised by the state government will also get the opportunity to participate in the fair. Meanwhile, folk artistes from all the districts will be participating in the folk culture festival.
A curtain raiser of the Bangla Sangeet Mela was held on Saturday at Rabindra Sadan premises. There will be an exhibition on ‘Handicrafts by the Tribals of Bengal’ from December 25 to January 1 at Gaganendra Pradarshansala in the Nandan premises.