'The Sacred Amritsar', a pageant of culture

Neha Saini

A celebration of mystics, poets and their timeless verse weaved together in the backdrop of Amritsar’s heritage, ‘The Sacred Amritsar’ has brought to the holy city some of the biggest and most celebrated names in the Indian classical and contemporary music. The festival, being hosted at Gobindgarh Fort, honours the spirit of Amritsar, a city known for its rich and diverse cultural heritage.

The festival promises to be an eclectic mix of spiritual music, devotional poetry, heritage walks, food, literature and workshops. It has been curated by Teamwork Arts, which hosts the annual Kabira Festival and several other national/international arts events.

‘The Sacred Amritsar’ features collaborative performances by a range of national and international artistes. Saturday morning celebrated the musical heritage of India as folk instrumentalist Sandeep Singh and Kabir folk artiste Shabnam Virmani performed at Urban Haat. Askari Naqvi and Valentina Trivedi charmed the audience with their masterful daastaan of Mian Azad. Chinmayi Tripathi, also a folk artiste, and leading Hindustani classical slide guitar player Kamala Shankar will perform on Sunday.

Afternoons at the festival are dedicated to exploring the city of Amritsar through heritage walks and food trails, followed by literary sessions featuring renowned names such as former diplomat and author Navdeep Suri, painter Arpana Caur, writer-poet Saumya Kulshrestha, and literary historian Purushottam Agrawal, along with singer-songwriter Vipin Heero.

The festival is also hosting evening concerts: Carnatic vocalist Aruna Sairam, Punjabi folk singer Dolly Guleria and singer-songwriter Harpreet Singh on March 25; and Rabbi Shergill on March 26.

While the musical events are free and open to all, a specially curated ‘Delegate Experience’, spread over two and a half days, with languid afternoon discourses on poetry, heritage walks, and the partaking of Amritsar’s incomparable cuisine, is the festival’s hallmark.