Bengaluru To Celebrate Virtual Ganesh Utsav This Year With 11 Day Online Cultural Festival

This time of the year whole of South Bengaluru transforms into a carnival arena with the city's most awaited cultural extravaganza the Bengaluru Ganesh Utsav. But like most other things this pandemic season, and the new normal where real is all virtual, this ten day festival too will be held in people's living rooms this year.

For the first time in 58 years, this cultural festival which sees artists from across the country performing across various venues will be streamed online to avoid people gathering in person.

What the organisers call 'India's largest cultural festival' that last for 11 days, will this year bring over 500 artists, along with two days of non-stop 12 hour long musical performances via Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter from tomorrow (22 August).

On Day 2, which is on August 23rd the festival will feature a musical marathon of light classical music or sugama sangeeta from 10 am to 10 pm featuring various renowned singers lead by Praveen D Rao.

The Ganesha idol at the Bengaluru Ganesh Utsava mantapa, at Sri Mallikarjuna Swamy temple, Basavanagudi though will be open for devotees to visit in person in adherence to norms of social distancing and other precautions.

Here is a schedule of some of the performances:

1. Day 4, 25 August 2020, Tuesday, 6.30 pm - "Chakrafonics" Fusion Music by Ajay Warriar, Varijashree Venugopal, Praveen D. Rao, Pramath Kiran and Friends

2. Day 5, 26 August 2020, Wednesday, 6.30 pm - "Tribute to Kishore Kumar" By Mohan Krishna, Sunita S Murali, Siddharth Belmannu,
Samanvitha Sharma and Troupe

3. Day 6, 27 August 2020, Thursday, 6.30 pm – Classical & Devotional music by Spoorthi Rao & Rahul Vellal.

4. Day 7 28 August 2020, Friday, 6.30 pm – “Folk Rock Music Concert” by Raghu Dixit project

5. Day 9, 30 August 2020, Sunday, 12 Hrs. Non Stop | Morning 10.00 am to 10.00 pm Evolution of Music in India "PARAMPARA" Presented by Famous Playback Singer Sangeeta Katti Kulkarni