A stadium-full of classical music
A stadium-full of classical music
Bengal Classical Music Festival 2014 returned to Dhaka on Thursday evening with all its grandeur, to enthrall the audience through captivating music and dance, coupled with top-notch arrangements. On the opening night, approximately a crowd of over 30,000 attended the festival.
Festive was the Army Stadium with multi-coloured lights, larger-than-life banners and billboard-size photos of performing artistes all around the venue. State-of-the-art sound system and an amazing aluminum-structured outdoor auditorium created a fantastic ambience for enjoying every stroke of instrumentals and vocals.
A makeshift exhibition featuring photos and short biographies of legendary maestros of classical music and dance was in place on the field like previous years that drew a substantial number of attendees.
This year's food court is even bigger and better, and caters to the diverse taste of people from different strata of society. Starting from fuchka-chatapati, pitha, biriyani, kebab to pasta and grilled fish, the area was a place for chit-chat and relaxing for the audience. Foysal Ahmed, one of the vendors of a food stall said, “We are trying to ensure quality food at a reasonable price. And the number of audience is really big that we are working hard to serve them.”
Apart from food stalls, a corner for handicraft shops and book shops was also in place right beside the main performance space. Another amazing arrangement at the festival was a miniature of the big auditorium, and a 3D miniature model of the proposed Bengal Museum of Fine Arts.
The most prominent feature of the festival is that it brings together tens of thousands of people with good taste of music and dance, to one platform. The power of music drew a large number youths who had little idea about classical music only one or two year back. They gathered at the venue, listened to the maestros and discussed what was on happening on the stage.
The auditorium at the stadium hosted 10,000 chairs, but the rest of the crowd enjoyed the festival sitting at the dining zone, in the field in front of projection screens and even at the galleries on the far back.