Bombay Jayashri in concert / Chamarajpet

Campaign to raise funds for festival

Sree Ramaseva Mandali also launched its funds campaign on the opening evening. A web site - www.fundmandali.org - has been created for this purpose. It was formally launched this evening though a big screen hardly showed up the home page of the site and the exercise didn't work well.

Repeatedly, the hosts asked rasikas to be generous and contribute. There is a booth on this campus where volunteers accept donations.

Clearly, sponsors' donations are not enough now to run a big music festival that this mandali does.

Sudha Murthy inaugurates . . .

This year's inauguration of the music fest in Chamarajpet was simple and quick. Sudha Murthy, writer and philantrophist and wife of IT baron Narayanamurthy of Infosys was the chief guest.

The no-fuss lady came on time, chatted with well-wishers, made a short speech and sat through the concert. 

A banner on the Infosys Foundation that Sudha manages, promoting basic education was prominently displayed inside the Big Tent.

Opening Evening at Chamarajpet

The Big Tent in Chamarajpet came alive on Ugadi evening. The duo of Bangalore Lakshman and Ramesh Babu let the nadadaswaram notes float around Sree Ramaseva Mandali's makeshift auditorium though there were only a handful of rasikas inside then.

The evening was sultry ( it drizzled a bit later ). Tickets sold fast as the time for Bombay Jayashri's concert neared.  There are rasikas, a good number who pay Rs.500 here to get front row seats for concerts of their favorite artiste.

The box-office here was also selling season tickets; much preferred for the good deal it offers.

The box office team said they would be strained on Sunday when Yesudoss is scheduled to sing here; they expect 5000 people.

Bigtime artistes will perform early

This is also the season when the top end artistes tour Europe and USA. The famed Cleveland Aradhana festival has just got over and artistes who were there, will now be doing local tours.

Others are about to fly out.

That is why people like Bombay Jayashri, Sanjay Subrahmanyan and K. J. Yesudoss are keeping their dates in Bangalore in the first week of the season here, before flying out.

Move to raise funds online; will this work?

Over the last five years of the Sri Ramanavami season, we have kept hearing about the big challenge that organizers in Bangalore now face - raising funds.

Most mandalis have loyal supporters but their donations are not enough.

As expenses rise and artistes too seek better renumeration, mandali managers have to think of more ways to raise funds.

This year, Sree Ramaseva Mandali plans to launch an online funds raising space to get donations from across the world, from well-wishers and rasikas.

This Mandali has a big budget and is surely feeling the pinch.  

Will online fund-collection campaigns work?

Welcome to Season 2016!!

Svagatam! to yet another music festival at Sri Ramanavami time here in Bangalore.

We at KutcheriBuzz are happy to be back to doing what we enjoy - reporting this unique season of music ( and some dance) across the Garden City. 

We hop from one mandali tent to the next, over the evening and capture the moods and colors of the festival, meeting artistes and organizers, talking to rasikas and shooting pictures.

Our attempt is to bring this season closer to rasikas across the world. In the best way we can.

We do welcome contributions from you too - you can mail short notes on a concert you enjoyed this season. Add a nice photo too! Mail to - kutcheribuzz@gmail.com. But you must do this quick!

Together, the coverage may well be a great one.

Welcome!