By Sukant Deepak

September 10, 2022 (IANSlife) The music festival, Jodhpur RIFF is back after a two-year interval and will be held from October 6 to 10 at Jodhpur’s Mehrangarh Fort. Playing host to over 250 performers, it aims to showcase Rajasthani, Indian, and global roots music and collaborations between their creators.

This will be the 13th edition of the festival and mark its fifteenth year. Owing to the Pandemic, the festival could not take place in the years 2020 and 2021.

Apart from music from Rajasthan’s Meghwal community, Shabad and Nirguni Bhajans and Kabir Vani in Madhya Pradesh’s Malwi Folk style, one of this year’s Jodhpur RIFF dawns will be ‘A Khasi Dawn’ with traditional music from Meghalaya. Sawan and Kachara Khan, of the Langa and Manganiyar communities, will — through a mix of performance and conversation — enlighten audience members on the strand of Sufi poetry in Langa and Manganiyar musical traditions, through an interactive session.

The main stage will witness Hebrew and Arabic Soul meeting Acoustic Rock at Jodhpur RIFF, courtesy Riff Cohen. Born in Tel Aviv, Israel, Cohen is a singer-songwriter, performer and composer who lives and performs across Israel and Europe. She juggles and experiments with various genres including French Pop, Avant-Garde, traditional North African music and classic rock. She sings in French, English and Hebrew.

“After a two-year hiatus, Jodhpur RIFF’s comeback this year will explore exciting new acts, new genres and new kinds of collaborations,” said Festival Director Divya Bhatia. “‘Citadels of the Sun’, for instance, is a unique collaboration which began between musicians in Ireland and Jodhpur three years ago, but which ripened online, during the pandemic. This ‘online alliance’ allowed us to explore ways and means of getting artists back on their feet during COVID-19.”

“Folk music is the music of the people, across generations. Jodhpur RIFF’s collaborations, in India as well as in other countries, have grown to evolve into an idiom of sorts for this genre,” said Gajsingh II of Marwar-Jodhpur, Chief Patron of the festival. “More importantly, Jodhpur RIFF has played a key role in building a focal point for and nurturing this part of the country’s vibrant ecosystem of cultural heritage by providing opportunities, inspiration and livelihood for traditional Rajasthani artists.”

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