Saptak Music Festival celebrates the spirit of Indian classical music and is organized every year in the month of January in Ahmedabad in Gujarat. This festival was inaugurated in the year 1980 by Pandit Ravi Shankar. This festival spans for a period of 11 days and showcases best musicians from modern and past days. This festival promises best of talents and also presents hundred musicians with sincere commitment to standards. The leading instrumentalist and vocalist participate in this festival. Some of the memorable and unique features of this festival have been dance and musical ensembles by popular artists like Tala Vadya Kacheri, Rajasthani folk music and Punjabi folk music. The declining culture of vocal music like Dhrupad and Thumri, and instrument like Pakhawaj and Sarangi have helped this festive attract new and varied audience. This music festival also gives opportunities to young singers, musicians, instrumentalist etc to portray their talents on stage.
History of Saptak Music Festival
This festival was started by Nandan and Manju Mehta, Rupande Shah, Bharti Parikh and D.D. Trivedi in 1980 with the blessing of Pandit Ravi Shankar and the late Pandit Kishan Maharaj. This festival features both established and emerging talents. Apart from containing pure classical music, Saptak Music Festival also include performance of classical dance forms, folk music, and semi-classical forms such as thumri. This thirteen-day gala event covers all forms of music, Hindustani, Carnatic and Ghazals.
Saptak Music Festival offers quite an unusual experience to the visiting people. This show is a delight for all music lovers both in India and aboard. Both young and experienced talent perform in this festival. Some 125 top notch artists and 50 performers perform in this festival for a span of 13 days. Though there are no tickets or reservation needed for this festival, but the visitors needs an invitation card.
