Block your calendars! Kala Ghoda Arts Festival returns with its glory with more venues than before

The city’s much-awaited Kala Ghoda Arts Festival is back on the streets this year from February 4 to 12. The theme of the festival this year will be Past <> Forward, and will host programs across 14 verticals – Dance, Music, Visual Arts, Theatre, Literature, Food, Children’s Literature and Workshops, Cinema, Heritage Walks, Stand Up Comedy, Street art, Urban Design and Architecture, Visual Arts and Workshops – at more than 10 iconic venues around the precinct.

In addition to K Dubash Marg, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sagrahalay and Cross Maidan among others, this year will also witness venues such as the YB Chavan Centre, IF.Be – the cultural space, and the Cooperage Bandstand Garden which will host a Farmer’s Market for the duration of the festival.

Brinda Miller, Chairperson of Kala Ghoda Association said, “The Kala Ghoda Arts Festival is a vibrant example of what can be achieved through community collaboration. It is a festival for the people and by the people. We are very excited that the city’s beloved festival will be back on ground after a gap of two years. Much has changed in this time, and our theme Past <> Forward is an ode to our legacy of 22 years while designing a festival of the future. It is indicative of the gradual emergence from a period of inactivity to an era heralding positivity, change and progress. Each year, individuals and enterprises across the country come together to make this celebration possible, and this year is no different.”

On the day one of the festival, novelist and essayist Amit Chaudhuri’s unique lecture-performance will expand upon the ideas he elaborates in his book, Finding the Raga and later in the week, Jerry Pinto will speak to Jane Borges about his book The Education of Yuri.

Heritage walks by Khaki Tours will take visitors around some of the old city’s iconic buildings; while studio visits will offer a glimpse into the offices of notable architects, including Brinda Somaya and Nandini Sampat, Kamal and Arjun Malik, and Puran Kumar. The theatre line-up brings Anita Date to the NGMA in Datta Patil’s Marathi play To Rajhans Ek and Joy Sengupta to the Yashwantrao Chavan Centre for The Bose Legacy.

And finally, the festival will close on the 12th of February with an unmissable reunion performance by the early 2000s fusion-blues band, Colonial Cousins.

The Kala Ghoda Arts Festival is hosted by the Kala Ghoda Association that was formed in 1998 with the aim of maintaining and preserving the heritage of the Kala Ghoda area – South Mumbai’s beloved art district. The Kala Ghoda district is renowned for the rich concentration of heritage buildings, art and cultural spaces, such as museums, art galleries, boutiques, restaurants and educational institutions. With the aim of promoting arts, crafts and cultural heritage in the precinct, all funds raised from the Festival every year are directed towards the restoration efforts undertaken by the Association in the precinct.