Gone are the days when people from small towns flocked to the big cities to catch a glimpse of their idols. Cultural festivals, which showcase the rich heritage of India, are now being held in tier two cities like Pune, Jodhpur, Thiruvananthapuram and Pondicherry. And they are being held on a mega scale, attracting a large audience, and inviting the performances of the best of artistes.

Pune has been the cultural capital of Maharashtra for Hindustani classical music festivals. But over the years, new initiatives have promoted other genres of music too through festivals like NH7 Weekender and the musical symposium Baajaa Gaajaa.
Rajasthan, known for its exotic locales, started off with the Jaipur Heritage International Festival, Jaipur Literature Festival and has recently started the Rajasthan International Festival (RIF) at Jodhpur.
Down south, we have the Hay Literature Festival in Thiruvananthapuram and far across in the NorthEast, we have the rock music festivals in Shillong. A look at the reasons that have changed the festival equation in the country.

Financial viability
Shubha Mudgal, well-known singer and organiser of Baajaa Gaajaa in Pune, says that the main reason to shift to Pune from Mumbai was because of financial viability. “My husband Aneesh Pradhan and I were contemplating on holding the festival in Mumbai. But we realised that for various issues, like obtaining permission (a tedious task in itself) to licensing, Pune was a better option. Moreover, the venue for the concert Ishanya was offered to us free of cost. If the venue is taken care of, then half the worries end there,” says Mudgal.
The tax issues in major metros like Mumbai are far higher and that makes organisers prefer shifting to smaller cities. Vijay Nair, director of Only Much Louder, a music management firm, was one of the organisers of the NH7 Weekender held in Pune. “The exorbitant entertainment tax in Mumbai acts as a repellent to most of the organisers. Metros are culturally bankrupt and don’t really have any open spaces left,” explains Nair.
Keith Wallang, CEO of Springboard Surprises and responsible for bringing about a new identity to the music industry of the NorthEast, feels that it isn’t a cakewalk to host festivals in a small city either. He says, “Huge financial investments are required to set up a good infrastructure for a music festival. To attract corporate funding and sponsors is a challenging task.”

Tourism appeal
Most of the events of these festivals held in Thiruvananthapuram, Jaipur and Jodhpur are organised at heritage buildings and palaces, giving the audience an essence of that place and royalty. Divya Kumar Bhatia, director of RIF says, “Jodhpur was perceived as one-day destination for tourists on their way to Jaisalmer. The whole idea was to bring Jodhpur on the mind space of people. People didn’t take Jodhpur very seriously as it was a small city and not very well connected. Now with the festival in its fourth year, the city has developed in terms of accessibility and connectivity. Also, the Maharaja of Jodhpur offered us the Mehrangarh Fort to hold the festival, which made all this possible. But certainly, the city of Jodhpur is now vibrant on the cultural radar and will only grow from here.”
Sanjoy K. Roy, producer of the Jaipur Literature Festival and the Hay Literature Festival, says that the way these festivals are structured is what matters. “There are many literature festivals in India. But Jaipur was planned in a different way and had that sort of global appeal to it. With a lot of foreign authors coming to Jaipur, it gained momentum in a big way. We were fortunate to receive the support of the Kerala government as they offered the Kanakakunnu palace free of cost. The city too has its own merits in being clean and green and perfect for a literature festival. The whole idea behind a festival is to have the audience attending all the three days of a festival, which is achieved in smaller cities,” says Roy.
Boost in tourism leads to development of the infrastructure and also the overall development of the region. Ahmedabad, which holds the International Kite Flying Festival, is attracting foreign tourists like never before and is gaining prominence on the global tourism radar for its exclusivity of a kite flying festival.
This year world renowned kite flying expert Peter Lyann visited the festival. “The infrastructure available is good and of international standards. It is now being marketed as one of the major city highlights with an exclusive tourism package,” says Paavan Solanki, online branding promoter and a participant of the festival.
Vipul Mittra, secretary of Gujarat Tourism Board and civil aviation, says that the influx of foreigners has increased at least three folds and people from over 35 countries across the globe visit the International Kite Flying Festival.

Audience strength
A festival’s strength lies in the passion of the people of the city it is being held in. None of the festivals would have been a major success had it not been for the local audience.
Shashi Tharoor, member of Parliament for Thiruvananthapuram, points out that Kerala needed a literature festival of this kind to promote its regional literature as well as get exposed to various other genres from different parts of the world. “The festival is an opportunity to open the windows of my constituency to the world and offer local readers world-class literature. The availability of a lot of world literature to the Malyalam-reading public is also a positive that the public in Kerala enjoy, and famous Malayalam writers like N.S. Madhavan are well known fans of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s writings,” he says.
Shillong and Pune too have an audience which is extremely musically inclined. Wallang says that the rock music festivals in Shillong culminated out of a strong audience who took to it. “Shillong has crazy rock fans and that certainly helps in putting together a festival. You know that you have your own people backing you and giving support.”
Sanjeev Bhargava, director of Seher, cultural events organisation, talks about how the smaller cities come without any preconceived notions and excessive baggage of culture. “In big cities, the focus is taken away from the performing art and is more on the people. In smaller cities, you have 90 per cent of the population attending the concert for the love of the art whereas in big cities 50 per cent of the audiences come on complimentary passes. A festival is meant to make culture more available to people,” he adds.

Road ahead
Since the tier two cities are still virgin and not corrupted by politicisation of the state, it is easier to conduct the festivals there. “But 10 years down the line the same situation may not exist anymore. Perhaps future concerts may include holding a festival in the malls and bringing culture to people in the way they want,” says Mudgal. “But ideally, we should develop art centres where people can spend the whole day doing something culturally inclined and enjoy the essence of their traditions,” she adds.
Roy too believes that the festive scenario will definitely change and it may not be for the better. “Having these festivals in smaller cities now will set up the infrastructure and logistics, which will help the cities grow into bigger metros. But the flipside will be them turning into what our other big cities are like now. But that only time can tell,” says Roy.