Jaffna Music Festival to kick off in March

Saturday, 19 January 2013 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The Jaffna Music Festival returns to the Jaffna Municipal Grounds in March 2013. This time around, the festival will host an eclectic array of music – including folk, contemporary and classical to name a few. This is a sister event of the Galle Music Festival, which attracted an audience of over 22,000 people over two days in 2012.

The Jaffna festival promises to be as exhilarating as the Galle festival, bringing together an exciting line up of musicians, dancers, performers and ritualists.

On 1 and 2 March 2013, the Jaffna Municipal Grounds will be bursting with a combination of vibrant music, colour and culture. The festival itself will be a celebration of the unique and fascinating history, heritage, diversity and talent that Sri Lanka has to offer. Joining the exciting line up of local artists will be a line-up of international performers.

The local and international artists will lead simultaneous performances on Friday and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 12 noon followed by a main stage performance from 5 p.m. to 10.30 p.m. daily. In order to further engage and educate festival-goers, the artists will have interactive daytime performances which will give audiences a chance to discuss and understand rich history and diversity behind the particular performances and instruments.

As at the past festivals, the Jaffna Music Festival will serve as a much needed meeting place for local and international artists and provide a forum where they can share, exchange, fuse and interact with other artists. Northern and Southern artists and audiences will have the opportunity to experience and interact with artists from the north, east, south and west and be introduced a diverse array of musical genres.

The aim of the Jaffna Music Festival is not only to showcase the diverse traditions and musical genres from around the island. It is also geared to specifically introduce these musical stylings to school children and young people in order to further stimulate their awareness and interest in the performing arts. The festival also looks towards reviving Jaffna’s historical status as a hub of arts and culture. In collaboration with Rikskonsertene (Concerts Norway) and Aru Sri Art Theatre, Sewalanka Foundation presents the Jaffna Music Festival 2013. The festival is funded by the Royal Norwegian Embassy and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). This time around, the festival will be conducted in co-partnership with the Sri Lanka Convention Bureau and its exclusive electronic media partners Shakthi and Sirasa TV.

This event is a part of a larger non-profit music cooperation program that was established with the objective to stimulate the musical performing arts of Sri Lanka, by providing for exchange while preserving the traditional Sri Lankan musical expression.

There will be no entrance fee for this event.