MUMBAI: The third edition of the Dumru Rhythm Festival will witness an act of 15 percussionists from India and abroad, and will have workshops which conducted by international artists. Initiated by Gladpeople Management Company, the two-day festival will be held in Koregaon Park, Pune on 19 and 20 December 2015.

Talking about new elements that have been added to the latest edition, Dumru organiser Aditya Prabhu revealed, “This year is more about Indian artists collaborating with international ones. We are also trying to promote young talent by adding the Emerging Talent Stage.” The festival will also have a drumming flea market with different kinds of drumming equipment that will be open for visitors to try their hand at it, or for impromptu jam sessions.

Organisers of the festival will donate half the profits to an NGO called Impact India Foundation, which intends to eradicate malnutrition by 2025. “Even artists will donate half their fees to the NGO, and since we intend to donate half of our profits, our artist budgets were low as well,” he added. This edition of the festival comes three years after the last one due to financial loss. After the 20212 edition, the company was forced to give up hosting the music festival until now.

When asked how difficult it was to bring the artists on board Prabhu said, “Being in the event management industry for the last 15-17 years was not that difficult. Artists have always supported us and they were more than happy to come to Dumru.”

This edition will offer more variety in terms of regional music with chenada players from Kerala, dhak players from Kolkata, dholki, dhol and lejim players from Maharashtra and dhol players from Punjab. The artist lineup includes names like Bickram Ghosh, V Suresh, BS Arun Kumar, Bhavani Shankar, Thomas Lang, Ranjit Barot and many more. On the second day of the festival, organisers will give away a Rhythm Excellence Award to a percussionist who has spread awareness and education about Indian rhythm globally.

This is the first time organisers will be hosting the festival at Pune’s Koregaon Park, which is more youth oriented, and are expecting a crowd of 7000-8000 people per day. While the festival does not have any new sponsors, it has brought on board a few media partners. “We are focusing on online promotions as it will help us create buzz. Also, we feel this will help us create word of mouth publicity,” Prabhu explained.

Tickets for the festival are available on Bookmyshow, and the organisers are happy with the kind of response it has received. According to Pradhu, 25 per cent of tickets have already been sold. These are priced at Rs 750, Rs 1500, Rs 35,000 and Rs 36,000.