That beautiful time of the year, when under the open, starry sky, Mumbaikars get a chance to experience the best of all things Art. Right from theater to dance, music, literature and some of the best installations designed by the most creative minds. Yes, I am talking about the much loved Hindustan Times Kala Ghoda Arts Festival, which in its 16th year, was a sight of pure joy and happiness. The weekend saw a huge crowd thronging to the venue, enjoying the performances and going click happy, while posing with the installations. Excited much? Well, for those of you who missed it, or would like to experience this arty joy next year, here's a glimpse of all the action, straight from the land of the black horse. Here's presenting the first video in my ode to the city titled Mumbai Love. 

Click on the image to watch the full video

Much love,

The Dancebee

Kala Ghoda festival entered its 14th year in Mumbai, earlier in February this year. With a footfall of more than half a million people this year, the festival is only becoming popular with every passing year. I managed to visit the fest on its last day i.e. 12t February, 2015. It was a bad decision to visit an art festival on a Sunday. Never have I seen SoBo look so crowded (except on weekdays. Otherwise, it wears a deserted look on Sundays). It was almost like the sight of Churchgate station on a weekday at 6:15pm, when hundreds of people are ready to kill each other for a seat in the Virar local.

As soon as I got down near the Parking lot area of Kala Ghoda, I felt like I was transported to the Kumbh mela. People were busy clicking pictures with practically everything. Even the man dressed up as Yama wasn’t spared. He became a celebrity, thanks to his Oh-So-Different costume! Many stalls were similar to the ones I had seen last year. Some of the NGO's from Orissa, Manipur etc were selling the same items that they did last year. A book sale caught my eye and I ended up buying some books at a great bargain (A complete Webster’s desk reference set for 99 bucks was a steal!)

Kala Ghoda festival is all about creativity and some wonderful work of art. Stalls are just an add-on. But when you have stalls selling a lot of items, people love pouncing on it even if they don't need to. I managed to click some good pictures of the installations at the Fest. Some of them were brilliantly made while some were a rip-off from last year’s fest. The traditional folk performances were mind blowing as always. The Vishal-Shekher concert didn’t interest me much like last year's Sonu Nigam concert did. I decided to click more pictures rather than hear them lip sync to some random song. Sadly, missed out on the Literature events this year (But, I guess Literature live at NCPA last year more than made up for everything).

I also happened to see some NGO's working for some amazing causes. They deserve special mentions here.The Sparrow shelter organization had some fabulous sparrow shelters, which is a need of the hour due to the dwindling numbers of this species. The shelters were reasonably priced at Rs 250 and Rs 350. It’s an amazing concept and I hope people buy these shelters to save sparrows from complete extinction.

Another stall was run by PALS. They have been working for plants and animals since 1993 (One of my favourite causes).I picked up some Tshirts to support their cause. Another favourite was handmade paper notepad made by students who are suffering from different disabilities. I also picked up some organic holi colours for the festival coming up in March. Yes, my shopping bag was almost full, but with items that were different. It was more of a contribution to a cause than regular crazy shopping.

The festival can definitely be termed as ‘Creativity at its best’. But next time, I'm NOT going to visit it on a Sunday for the plain reason that I need better clicks of the installations! And next year, I gotta take time out for the Literature fest as well. So until next time.,

Adios Black Horse!