Bengaluru Poetry Festival: Celebrating the Art of Poetry and Music

The 7th edition of the Bengaluru Poetry Festival took place on August 5th and 6th at the Grand Mercure Bengaluru, located in Gopalan Mall on Old Madras Road.

on Aug 07, 2023

Bengaluru Poetry Festival: Celebrating the Art of Poetry and Music | Frontlist

Subodh Sankar, co-founder of Atta Galatta, a bookstore in Bengaluru, laments that poetry is often overlooked during festivals. As he observed the rise in popularity of poetry, Sankar noticed a limited number of opportunities and platforms for poets to showcase their talents. To address this issue, Sankar and his wife Lakshmi and a passionate team of poets and poetry enthusiasts created the Bengaluru Poetry Festival (BPF) to celebrate the art of poetry. They made a platform for poets and poetry lovers to express their passions and engage with all things poetry.

The 7th edition of the Bengaluru Poetry Festival took place on August 5th and 6th at the Grand Mercure Bengaluru, located in Gopalan Mall on Old Madras Road.

This year's festival put an even greater emphasis on poetry than in previous years. It spanned two days and boasted a total of 30 sessions, making it a grand event. Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia, a well-known classical musician, was the one to inaugurate the festival.

The event consisted of both panel discussions and individual readings. The schedule included renowned poets and musicians like Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia, Javed Akhtar, Tanuja Chaturvedi, Maria Goretti, Shubha Mudgal, Megha Rao, and Mehak Goyal. The concert performance by singer Maalavika Sundar marked the end of the event.

The highlight was on music and the influence of poetry on their compositions. During the event, lyricists and musicians discussed how poetry has influenced their work. One of the musicians, Shubha Mudgal, shared that many of her compositions are derived from Sufi and other mystical poets.

There was a new section dedicated to children's poetry this year. This was also the first time that BPF had organized such a large-scale children's section.