Bengal classical music festival set for Dec, chooses Abahani field as venue

The Bengal Foundation’s classical music festival has finally found a venue: Dhanmondi’s Abahani field. The five-day festival will start on Dec 26.

Staff Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 14 Nov 2017, 08:23 AM
Updated : 14 Nov 2017, 06:48 PM

Most of the Indian subcontinent artists and musicians invited to the event have agreed to come, Bengal Foundation Chairman Abul Khaer Litu told bdnews24.com on Tuesday. The programme will end on Dec 30.

A newspaper had wrongly reported that the Bengal Foundation had received permission to use the Mirpur Indoor Stadium for its ‘folk music’ fest.

“Bengal has never organised the folk fest. Who spreads such news?” the Bengal Foundation chairman said, dismissing the report as ‘false’.

“We sought to use the Mirpur Indoor Stadium for the classical music festival. The finance minister was also supportive of our request. But, given the heavy schedule for the cricket season, we decided to hold the event at the Abahani field. We have received permission to use it.”

The details for the event will be available at a press conference in the coming week, he said.

The Bengal Foundation had initially planned to host the event at the Army Stadium on Nov 23, but did not receive permission from the authorities. Then the organisers had cancelled the event.

“Foreign artists and musicians know the Army Stadium as a secure venue. There is no way to consider alternative venues at such a late stage,” Khaer had said.

But afterwards the organisation decided to proceed with the petitions to the Ministry of Cultural Affairs to invite foreign artists to the event.

The requisite taxes have also been sent to the National Board of Revenue. The festival had faced difficulties in obtaining permission to hold overnight events at the alternative venues.