Concluding at dawn today, the Bengal Classical Music Festival brought together 160 artists over the course of the five-day music and dance extravaganza at Army Stadium.
The third annual event was bigger than last year's in every way: more days, longer hours, more headliner artists, and a crowd to match.
Sponsored by the Bengal Foundation and Square, among others, it was a completely free event, though people had to register in advance – which they certainly did.
“It is by far the biggest audience I have played for,” said santoor Pandit Shivkumar Sharma. “This is a historic thing happening here.”
“I travelled from Bogra just to attend the festival,” said Md Zakaria Sheikh Justice, who returned every night. “I got off the bus and came straight to the venue.”
More than 55,000 people attended on the fourth evening. There were traffic jams around the venue and hour-long queues to enter, even as late as 2am.
The audience size astounded the musicians, many of whom have been selling out concert halls around the world for decades. Organisers attributed day four's surge in crowd size to flute player Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia, who performed that evening to a packed stadium from around 4am.
“I have been performing on stage for 60 years, but have not experienced such grand arrangements,” Chaurasia said. “More interesting is the enthusiasm of the audience here ... who spend the whole evening and stay up all night to listen to music."
“I have not seen such music lovers in the whole world,” he added.
Chaurasia was also a big draw last year and the year before. In 2013, the night he played was the most well-attended, at 35,000. This year’s attendance topped that number almost daily.
Set to close the festival was sarod player Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, playing for the first time at the annual event.
“I would like to congratulate Bengal for creating awareness about music. This is the first time I am playing for local people. My other performances here were all official,” Amjad said. He expressed interest in returning next year and playing together with his sons Ayaan Ali Khan and Amaan Ali Khan, who had performed at the festival the night before.
They were among many performers from the same family on this year’s programme. Others were: father and son Rahul and Shivkumar Sharma, father and daughter Ajoy and Kaushiki Chakrabarty, and brothers Ajan and Sajan Misra, and Umakant and Ramakant Gundecha.
They artists themselves also enjoyed meeting so many fellow classical performers. “I don’t think I’ve ever been under the same roof with so many members of the fraternity,” said Amaan.
Shivkumar Sharma said the festival was “an answer to people who ask: What is the future of Indian classical music?”
“There are those who think classical music may be lost,” he said. “But when I come and play here, I don’t feel that at all.”
