New challenges as iconicculture festival goes online

Spic Macay's all-night classical arts festival, Yamini, is going online for the first time in 40-odd years

For 17 years, people have been gathering at IIM-B on January 25 for an overnight classical music concert called Yamini.

Organised by The Society for the Promotion of Indian Classical Music And Culture Amongst Youth (Spic Macay) it is a unique concert experience.

“Yamini has been happening for 40 years since the inception of Spic Macay at various conventions. The annual concert at IIM-B is our longest running version,” says Sahana, coordinator at IIM-B.

The concert has also been hosted at other institutions in Bengaluru, such as PESIT, IIIT-B and Symbiosis School of Media and Communication.

“There’s a charm to an overnight concert. The idea comes from the practice of staying up through the night for festivals like Janmashtami and Shivaratri,” she says. “You conquer the need to sleep by listening to ‘soul-healing’ music.”

Pre-pandemic, the event used to take place on the lawns of IIM-B where the audience was provided with mattresses and blankets, coffee and bonfires.

“We wanted to create an intimate and immersive experience and replicating this is an online space has been a challenge,” she says.

The concert, to be streamed live on YouTube this year, will have high quality audio and video recordings of the performances. “Everything was done in professional studios,” she says.

Spic Macay also had trouble finding top-notch musicians willing to perform online. “Artistes are apprehensive about having their music easily available on YouTube, especially without receiving compensation for every view. They are also plagued by concerns regarding intellectual property rights and copyright,” she explains.

But the digital space has also made Yamini accessible to a wider audience. “Since it happens overnight, people from across time zones have a chance to tune in at times comfortable to them,” she says.

This potential audience has organisers excited about the prospects of following a mixed approach even after live concerts resume.

“We used to stream our events even earlier but we hadn’t paid much attention to that space. We now hope to stream the performances so that more people can enjoy the music,” she says.

Performers this year

Yamini will take place from Jan 25, 8 pm to Jan 26, 6 am, on Spic Macay’s YouTube channel. Performing artistes are Vishakha Hari, Purbayan Chatterjee, S Sowmya, Mysore A Chandan Kumar and Venkatesh Kumar.