MUMBAI: On the opening day of the Kala Ghoda Festival, a crowd of around 6000 people were present to experience the musical gala at Cross Maidan. The musical evening of the art fest kick-started with Isheeta Ganguli singing Rabindranath Tagore’s songs and driving high level of patriotism with ‘Vande Mataram’.

This was followed by ‘Hari Om Hari’ singer Usha Uthup who hit the beat of entertainment and enthralled the audiences for 90 minutes. Her energy on the stage was followed by Chintu Bhosle, grandson of legendary singer Asha Bhosle.

KGAF'13 music section co-curator Chanda Chaudhary Barrai said, “Music tends to attract more people as other events in the festival have free entry but limited seats, so people come in large numbers for the musical events. We actually have set-up the stage right in the middle of the ground and it is 180 degree. Technically, we use only half the ground because we maintain a certain decibel level. We can have around eight to nine thousand people at Cross Maidan who can actually listen to music because after a distance you can’t really hear the music.”

On 7 February,children from Shri VileParle Kelavani Manlal School will perform the act. It will be followed by an Australian artist Tjupurru which the Australian Consulate has brought to India for Kalaghoda. He will create a 100 per cent live electronic beat driven soundscape by playing a unique instrument - a slide Didjeridu called The Didjeribone.

Mumbai based experimental band Rhythm Method will also perform a fusion session for 45 minutes. The final act of the day will be by Sparsh, a young band from Pune who have performed at Mood Indigo.

On Friday 8 February, there will be a performance by National Streets for Performing Arts, followed by The Vravi Guitar Project. Then there will be a two and half hour act in collaboration with the British consulate.

Weekend will be the time, when most of the crowd draws in to enjoy the festival. On Saturday, the venue will move to the Asiatic library steps.

She said, “Asiatic library first of all can take lot more people and importantly it’s the original venue for the Kala Ghoda music. During the course of the week, it will be difficult to set up a musical evening (at the library) because it is an office space. For last fifteen years, we have seen people sit on the steps of the library and enjoy the music, and we will do it this year as well but only on the last two days. Cross Maidan was added just last year, so it’s a new venue. Asiatic gives the whole Kala Ghoda feel of the festival.”

On Saturday, Utsav Lal, 20-year-old musician will play classical music on the piano, followed with a performance by Talvin Singh Matharoo along with his line-up of friends, including Roopkumar Rathod.

The festival will culminate on Sunday 10 February, with a concert featuring renowned bollywood singers like Akriti Kakar and Salim Sulaiman.