PUNE: There will be yet another change in the 66th Sawai Gandharva Bhimsen Mahotsav to be held in the city from December 12 to 18. Pandit Jasraj will not perform in this grand musical festival as he is not available on the given dates. The festival will be held at Maharashtriya Mandal Sports Centre in Mukund Nagar.
"Sawai Gandharva was in news this year after its venue was changed from the ground of New English School Ramanbaug to Mukund Nagar. The new location has been made available on Google Maps for the convenience of the audience to reach the spot,” said Shirinivas Joshi, Executive President, Arya Sangeet Prasarak Mandal.
While last year, there was a chaos and crowd at the venue entrance on a couple of days, as the daily tickets were sold out too soon, this year, the organisers will not sell daily tickets at the last moment at the venue. Instead, they will be available in advance along with the season tickets and could be used on any one of the days.
The season tickets for the chairs will be available for Rs 4,000 and
Rs 3,000 (for the chairs in the back). For the Indian seating, the season ticket will cost Rs 500 and daily ticket will be available at Rs 200 each.
The tickets will be available for sale from December 4 onwards at Behre Ambewale near Shanipar, Shirish Traders (Bodhini) near Kamla Nehru Park, Navadikar Musicals near Yashwantrao Chavan Natyagruha and Abhiruchi Foods at Sahakar Nagar, Aranyeshwar. The tickets will also be available online at www.esawai.com from the same day from 9 am onwards,” said the organisers.
The festival will start at 3 pm on day 1 and continue till 10 pm. On day 2 and 3, the timings are 4 pm to 10 pm. On day 4, the organisers have got permission to continue it from 3 pm till midnight. On the last day, the performances will begin at noon and end at 10 pm.
Joshi said, “This year, the venue is new, but we will still try to make it up to the mark for our audience. Puneites and music lovers always welcome and applaud this effort of ours and we are sure that we will get the same huge response this year too.”
ARTISTES PERFORMING AT THE 66TH SAWAI GANDHARVA BHIMSEN MAHOTSAV
- Day 1 - Kalyan Apar (Shehnai), Ravindra Parchure (Vocal), Basant Kabra (Guitar), Prasad Khaparde (Vocal), Parveen Sultana (Vocal)
- Day 2 - Dr Rita Dev (Vocal), Saurabh Salunkhe (Vocal), Rahul Sharma (Santoor), Pt Ajay Pohankar (Vocal)
- Day 3 - Aparna Panshikar (Vocal), Ragi Balwant Singh (Vocal), Father-son duo Milind Raikar and Yadnyesh Raikar (Violin), Pt Ulhas Kashalkar (Vocal)
- Day 4 - Dattatreya Velankar (Vocal), Sawani Shende (Vocal), Vivek Sonar (Flute), Shrinivas Joshi (Vocal), Devaki Pandit (Vocal), Pt Goswami Gokulotsav Maharaj (Vocal), Ustad Shahid Parvez (Sitar)
- Day 5 - Brothers Arshad Ali and Ali (Vocal), Sisters Apurva Gokhale and Pallavi Joshi (Vocal), Nirmala Rajshekhar and Indradeep Ghosh (Veena and Violin), Sanjeev Abhyankar (Vocal), Pratik Chaudhary (Sitar), Pt Birju Maharaj and his disciple Saswati Sen (Kathak), Dr Prabha Atre (Vocal).
