The Singing Festival

The singing festival, held on the weekend of October 14th and 15th, provided a rich experience showcasing the diversity, community spirit, and individual talents of Auroville.

Veronique and Louis compared the evening with a light touch, helpfully translating some of the foreign lyrics, and even took to the stage themselves. A creative touch was brought by ‘Ok’ who had crafted oversized upcycled musical note signs from old CDs, each a yard long. These hung over the stage, contributing to a more intimate atmosphere within the otherwise spacious CRIPA hall.

Reflecting Auroville’s melting pot of cultures, the festival was a diverse offering not only in terms of performers and musical genres but also in languages, including four Indian dialects, major European languages, Mandarin, and Hebrew.

The format allowed over thirty singers to perform their favourite piece, often with fellow musicians accompanying them. The musical range spanned from jazz to Baul, and from pop to classical.

Remarkably, the festival featured young children, aged 5, 8, and 12, whose singing abilities defied their ages. And there were older performers demonstrating the ‘youth that never ages’ including Marlenka and Anandi. Some with a performing past, like Veronique, grew in stature as the lights focussed on them. One young man, Abhi, confessed to being nervous and then commandingly and beautifully sang a Tracy Chapman solo piece ‘Fast car’.’ Irina, a young German singer, dedicated her performance of ‘Als ich fortging’ to her father, who was listening via a live stream from home and had sung the folk song as an act of resistance against the former East German authorities.

While most performers were Auroville residents, one lady, Praphulla, travelled all the way from Hyderabad to sing a Baul paean to Krishna. Carla’s soprano operatic voice revealed her background as a singer and brought the worlds of opera and Handel to life with her rendition of ‘Lascia ch’io pianga’.

The performers were skilfully guided and trained by Shakti, who also played the keyboard for some sets.  She curated a performance that left the audience departing with a sense of the enchanting Auroville magic that occasionally envelops us.

In short, the festival showcased the talents of the community, some of which were previously hidden, while others were well-known. Fittingly for Auroville, on both nights the singers came together to sing a finale of ‘We are the World’. As we left, we carried with us a heightened sense of that Auroville magic, making the world feel just a bit more connected than when we arrived.