Kala Ghoda Festival, Mumbai - India
A Magnet for Creative Talent at Mumbai's Cultural Hub
Oct 31, 2009
The annual Kala Ghoda Festival is a celebration of arts and crafts held in the Kala Ghoda area near the Jehangir Art Gallery of South Mumbai, India in October. It is a prelude to the bigger festival that will take place in February.
Kala Ghoda is a magnet for creative talent; artists, architecture buffs, fashion designers and food connoisseurs. The Kala Ghoda festival hopes to be a catalyst for the revival of art across Mumbai. It brings together the works of artists in the fields of art, craft, dance, music, theatre and films to present a vibrant cultural show. This fair is greatly looked forward to every year by lovers of arts and crafts, and this place becomes a colorful carnival of talent.
The Kala Ghoda Area
The festival owes its name to the area of Kala Ghoda, which in English means Black Horse. Long ago, in the centre of the large node on Esplanade Road, Mumbai, stood a statue of King Edward VIII astride a black horse. Though this relic of a colonial past has been moved elsewhere, and the road renamed as Mahatma Gandhi Road, the Mumbaikars still refer to the area as Kala Ghoda.
The crescent-shaped area of Kala Ghoda has many art galleries, educational institutions, museums and heritage buildings. Restaurants like Samovar, Noodle Bar, Bombay Blues, Joss, Khyber and Chetana, as well as designer boutiques like Fab India, Cotton World, Globus and Westside, add diversity to the area.
The heritage buildings here also give the area a distinct visual identity. And with over 1,00,000 square feet of existing indoor gallery space, mass outdoor pavement galleries, and exhibition space within the covered arcades, Kala Ghoda seems like a living, breathing urban museum.
Amidst all these is held the prominent Kala Ghoda festival, thronged by visitors and tourists from all over the world. The Craft Fairs organized by the state government have all together helped promote the area as the cultural hub of Mumbai. The success of the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival has encouraged several other arts and cultural festivals at that time of the year.
Kala Ghoda Festival Details
The festival is organized by the non-profit Kala Ghoda Association. Established in 1988, it aims to improve the existing infrastructure of the area and give it a distinct identity as Mumbai's art district. Many teams handle each of the area's sub-festivals. Ever since inception, this festival has grown in stature and popularity, attracting visitors and participants from all over the globe. In 2009 it enters its 11th year and runs for a week with over 320 programs. The most important thing about this festival is its diversity.
During the festival, the entire region of Kala Ghoda turns into a pedestrian square; and the Rampart Row is closed to vehicular traffic for the duration, with the entire area becoming a street mela, or carnival. Festival venues include the Jehangir Art Gallery, the National Gallery of Modern Art, the David Sassoon Library, Max Mueller Bhavan, Elphinstone College, the K R Cama Institute, the M C Ghia Hall, and the street area of Rampart Row. In recent years, the festival has expanded beyond the Kala Ghoda crescent, with events also being held in Azad Maidan and Horniman Circle.
Artistic creativity and ingenuity dominate the entire area. There are free heritage walks and tours, a craft workshop, a writing workshop, a traditional Indian street magic show, an Urdu poetry evening, a panel discussion about literature and Bollywood movies. There are magic shows, puppet shows, and theatre, too. At dusk, the entire area is illuminated and enhanced by music and dance concerts.
Children's workshops take place every evening at the Pavement gallery. Calligraphy, Origami, painting, warli art, puppet making, yoga are all taught to kids to create interest among young ones. Entry to all these events is free, the costs being met through corporate sponsorship.
Kala Ghoda Festival Market
The festival holds a market with book and music shops, and unique handmade items which make great gifts. One can see paintings, amazing sculptures by potters, and mehendi tattooing on hands. There are artisans selling their creations, and artists who sketch instant portraits. One can learn the history of different art forms from masters of the art. What's more, one can even have one’s future foretold by a parrot! In case anyone is hungry, there are stalls selling local food, with various cuisines lending the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival an exotic flavour.
The festival runs from 10 a.m. to 9 pm. The Parsi breakfast is served between 10 and 11 a.m. The cultural shows begin at 5 p.m., and films are mostly shown between 2 and 4 p.m.
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