Mumbai: The much awaited Elephanta Festival kick started on Saturday with thousands of tourists flocking to the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Elephanta caves and equal number of art lovers praising the performances of music maestros at Gateway of India

A record number of visitors took the Heritage Walk throughout the day, organized at the caves, which was guidedby Dr. Suraj Pandit. Similarly, there was a great response to the painting and sculpture competitions organized in association with JJ School of Art.

When the day was full of colours and crafting, the evening was filled with best of the music and performances by national and international performers. Starting with Prachee Shah’s whose Kathak dance performance set the right tempo for the audience. Raja Kale on Tabla raised the bar with his taals. The evening became a historic one with the performance by none other but the lord of flute, Pundit Hariprasad Chaurasia and his jugalbandi with international music stars like George Brooks and Gwyneth Wentink in the backdrop of Gateway of India which was illuminated with1.5 million LED lights. Also was there Vijay Ghate on Tabla in the confluence of music from around the shores.

On Sunday, there would be performances by Tejaswini Lonari – Indian Classical Dance Performance, Kavita Seth – Sufi Vocal , Anu Sinha – Kathak Performance (7.45pm – 8.30pm) and Nishat Khan –Sitar Instrumental.

The event was sponsored by Bank of Baroda and Dena Bank and LIC also remained a co-sponsor

Source : Lokesh Shastri