Music, dance and poetry sessions this weekend

Bengaluru: An extravaganza of cultural events awaits Bengaluru this weekend at Freedom Park. 

The two-day event is being organised by Mumbai’s National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA), BLR Hubba, and Bangalore International Centre. 

The main organisers, BLR Hubba (earlier known as Unboxing BLR Habba), will be hosting a programme every month leading to its annual programme in December. This event will mark the first of the monthly events’ series. 

NCPA, after launching its first edition of the NCPA@thePark in March 2022, has brought the format to Bengaluru “with the goal to exhibit live performances and promote performing arts in the country, free of cost”. 

V Ravichandar, chief facilitator of the BLR Hubba, said, “We selected Freedom Park as the venue because we were interested in our public spaces coming alive with arts and culture. Though the park is synonymous with protests now, it can also be a part of revitalising public spaces.” 

The hubba’s objective is to promote arts and culture in the city, and encourage more such events by manifolds. “Despite our infrastructure challenges, we want to explore how the city can become a hub for music, literature, theatre, dance among other art forms,” he added. 

Artiste line-up 

On Saturday, 6 pm, the Symphony Orchestra of India will present an evening of light classical music. The audience will get to hear works by Mozart, Johann Strauss and more. 

At 7.15 pm, there will be a spoken word and music session by UnErase Poetry, where Simar Singh, Priyanshi Bansal and Vanika Sangtani, accompanied by musician Abhin Joshi, will share stories about love, hope and life. 

On Sunday, an Odissi performance by Ratikant Mohapatra’s Srjan called ‘Deesha-Navigating the journey of forging new horizons’, will be held at 6 pm. 

At 7.30 pm, the band Darren Das & The Sixth Sense will perform pop, retro, rock n’ roll and classic rock music. 

The organisers will run free shuttle buses on both evenings from the Vidhana Soudha metro station to Freedom Park and back. 

Entry is free. For details, visit blrhubba.com.