Music with an underlying message gains a new meaning altogether. Harping on this line, the Earth Day Network (EDN) had joined hands with Alliance Francaise du Bengale, Kolkata, to observe and celebrate World Music Day on Friday, June 21.

Like the World Music Day, the Earth Day too emerges as one of the largest civic movements all over the globe. It goes without saying that music, with its universal idiom of connectivity, integrates people to come and meet at a convergence point, whether in France or in India or on any other place across the planet. So is the pervasive nature or our surrounding environment, which largely dominates our lives. True that the natural resources like air, water and fire form a common plank of heritage for us to survive on. And hence, we need to preserve it for a safe future.
Having premiered on April 22 way back in 1970, the Earth Day has evolved over time to burgeon into a work-unit of 22,000 partners and green crusaders in around 192 nations only to broaden, diversify and mobilise the environmental campaign. Over a billion people now participate in the annual Earth Day activities, thus lodging it as the biggest civic ceremony worldwide.
Spearheading to widen the gamut of environmental aspects as an all-inclusive realm which incorporates issues affecting health, communities and the natural atmosphere, the Earth Day Network recently launched a theme song titled Backseat Buddies. The composition aims to accentuate its objective to educate the civic community towards curbing environmental contamination with its effective contribution. Popular bandster Neel Adhikari and his outfit Neel and the Lightbulbs, comprising high-school students, have come up with a unique, catchy and a foot-tapping number to encourage pupils about the importance of car-sharing, instead of travelling individually in separate cars. For this initiative will lead to pollution control, reduction of traffic congestion and saving precious fuel to make room for a greener, cleaner town in times ahead. Besides, the eco-friendly programme has plans to release awareness-drives with a clean-up agenda as its priority at various parks where the music-bands will perform live for several soirees with unstinting help from environmentally conscious citizens of Kolkata. This apart, the EDN has distributed free saplings and an array of Backseat Buddies car-stickers at Nazrul Manch, the key venue of the lately hosted international music fest. “We are the citizens of one blue earth; one global village. So why not make this car-sharing project a sweeping one to terminate the global-warming woes even by a bit? We think one should opt for a vehicular share rather than moving into individual conveyances, which seems more of a status symbol or a security-measure in lieu of convenience. Besides checking pollution and conserving petrol, it’s always fun and cool for a bunch of young kids to share their car-seats over tiffin and notes-exchange with schoolmates and close friends from the same locality,” opined Debapriya Dutt of the Earth Day Network. Dubbing the developed theme-track more youth-friendly than didactic, she says, “Children don’t like to assimilate anything preachy. Affixed with fun filled, exciting games and interesting competitions, we tend to design our modules in an easygoing manner, so that it lends out an enjoy-while-learn experience to those minor minds to retain better.”
From accomplished celeb musicians to budding new bands, a colourful musical cavalcade took to the streets of Kolkata and halted at a few good pre-determined haunts to flag off its daylong musical journey. Being the green partner of the Fête de la Musique (World Music Day) event, the EDN followed the roadmap, earmarked by the Alliance Francaise du Bengale. “We trailed the route of the truck that the French cultural organisation brought out in the open on Friday morning,” added Dutt.
Commenced two decades ago in Europe’s France on the day of summer solstice at the behest of Jack Land, the then French Minister of Culture, the day is still regarded as the national music day back home, informs the director of Alliance Francaise du Bengale, Stephane Amalir. “Diversity of music is the chief flavour of this musical extravaganza. From Indian classical strains to western classical notes to blues, rock-n-roll, folksy tunes, Bollywood, electronic, metal and new age music, a plethora of varied genres featured on the entertaining music-roster. Surprisingly, a posse of 50 policemen also partook the music-mania along with their instruments in place of the usual batons and fire-arms,” divulged the director.
Having caught the imagination of millions everywhere, the World Music Day is now held at thousands of famous havens in more than 100 countries, thereby offering free concerts to people, cutting across different tastes and generations and catering every style of music from pavements to concert halls. The reach is huge no doubt with a flash-mob kind of a crowd, just joining in the bandwagon from nowhere to sing and dance to the musical euphoria. Countries like Luxembourg, Italy, Greece, Nigeria, Equador, Colombia take part in this global musical fete. So do cities like New York, Valparasio and Geneva. “As a host, Kolkata has rivalled many big stations around the global turf for the current year’s chapter of World Music Day. In the next edition, we hope to make the canvas even bigger,” shared a representative of Alliance Francaise du Bengale. With almost 70 bands having already signed up on the register-roll, the list looked simply impressive for the gig. The line-up contained both well-known and aspiring outfits. For example, the Police band, Los Amigos, Babu band, The Door and the Classical Music society.
The music-rally had rightly unleashed its trip from Gurudev’s aegis of art and learning. “It was to be a non-stop 10 am to 11 pm affair. Through the roadshow, Kolkata’s denizens got to witness a rare, unplugged version of bandmusic rendition,” he further chipped in. And marking the centenary celebration of Bengal’s greatest poet and songwriter — Rabindranath Tagore’s — historic Nobel Prize win in 1913, the event was befittingly unfolded from his erstwhile residence-turned-Rabindra Bharati University (Jorashanko Thakurbari) campus. A truck acting as a moving stage meandered through the lanes and by-lanes of Kolkata, stopping at some of the pre-designated sites for a bout of live concerts.
Simultaneously, a bevy of bands had also performed the whole day at Nazrul Manch and other distinctive venues, dotting the metropolis from malls, parks, hotels, cinemas and international cultural centres to bookshops. Large screening slides were mounted up for the benefit of the trooping revellers to get a better view of the show in progress.
“In 2014, we’ll try and manage to bring in music from outside the city and its periphery under one umbrella,” declared the Alliance Francaise director assuringly.
Even in the era of digitalised stores of music, which threaten to ring a death-knell for its physical presence, this initiative to party with sounds-and-beats in style was obviously a great welcoming relief to the music-lovers from all walks of life! Only a fortnight ago, it was Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal’s (lead guitarist of Guns N Roses) turn to sweep the Kolkatans off their feet with a scintillating jamming session and, after last week’s Fête de la Musique celebration, let’s see whose turn is it next? Play on!