Traditional and contemporary music and dance will be in the spotlight when the Galle Music Festival, sister event of the Jaffna Music Festival, bringing together musicians from around the island is held on March 3rd and 4th.

Last year the Jaffna Music Festival attracted over 13,000 people to Jaffna. The organizers addressing a press conference this week said that this year too, the open air event promises to be just as exhilarating.
 

The Galle festival will host an exciting line up of musicians, dancers and performers at the Samanala Grounds in Galle. Joining the exciting line up of local artists will be International performers from Bangladesh, India, Norway and Palestine.

One of the objectives in this event is to educate festival-goers and the youth of Sri Lanka about different forms of folk music and artists, to give a more diverse and interesting experience of each folk form and to preserve the Sri Lankan traditional music.

The two day line-up of national and international artists will include folk music items like Sanni Yakuma- from Paravahera, Kolam-from Mirissa, Rookada-from Ambalangoda, Sampradaika Jana Gee-from Alawwa, KafferManja-from Sirambi Adiya, Kali Kambatam-from Akkaraipattu, Vasanthan Koothu-from Kadduwan, Kovalan Koothu-from Mullaitivu, Vaasappu-from Mannar, Adivasi-from Dambana and contemporary music items by Sangeeth-Bhawana-Galle, Evolution-the choir of the University of Visual and Performing Arts, Centegratz and B&S with Ashanthi, Umara, Umariya and Randhir.

Arunthathy Sri Ranganathan, Artistic Director of the Music Cooperation said that the event will open doors for local artists to perform to an international audience and musicians of all ethnic groups from all parts of the island to perform together.

“Sri Lankan students, teachers and sound engineers are able to draw on modern technologies and musical communication to share in their work and enhance their performances, concerts and festivals. It’s a celebration of our diverse multi cultural traditional heritage and an effort towards harmony by creating a shared festival experience for visitors from the North and their brothers and sisters from the South,” she added.

The event is in collaboration with Rikskonsertene (Concerts Norway) and Aru Art Theater, Sewalanka with funding by the Royal Norwegian Embassy and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

“I believe that the music festivals are creating positive meeting places for performance communities from different parts of Sri Lanka,” says Hilde Haraldstad the Ambassador of the Royal Norwegian Embassy, adding that she’s glad to say that there will be people coming from Norway to the festival and also from South Asia countries and the Middle East.

“Music co-operation has several components. To support music festivals is one of them and the other components are for the musicians to go to Norway and to perform there,” she said adding that it gives an opportunity to Norwegian artists to come here, perform and travel around the country and also to give classes and workshops here.

This event is a part of a larger nonprofit Music Cooperation Programme that is established with the objective of stimulating the musical performing arts of Sri Lanka by providing for exchange while preserving traditional Sri Lankan musical expressions.

- By Aanya Wipulasena

The Cinnamon Grand team hosted a hospitality tent at the 2012 Kala Pola, yearly  art market and for fun, framed vegetables and fruit pictures to pose the question, “can food be art?”

The two model food mannequins at the entrance to the Cinnamon Grand Café stole the show with their retro lettuce bodice and groovy spring onion hairstyles, which became the central spot to stop and take arty photographs.

 Created by Cinnamon Grand's talented Chef duo Weeraman and Keerithi, the Food Art Cafe by the hotel, certainly proved that, food can certainly blend with art!

 Rohan Karr, the General Manager of the city’s leading five star hospitality trendsetter Cinnamon Grand, picked the avant-garde Dogs Go Bananas as the food art piece for his bathroom and the Carrot Lobsters he felt would look rather cool in the hotel’s famed seafood, Lagoon restaurant.

 According to Karr food art reflects the creativity of the Cinnamon Grand team. “The gallery with its Salad Ducks and Cabbage Fish framed as the backdrop of the festival restaurant, reaches out to people in an inspiring way, that makes you think of the Cinnamon Grand as so much more than just a place to eat and sleep.”

" We were delighted that this opportunity was given to us by John Keells. We look forward to
ensuring that food meets art, at every Kala Pola," he said.

 At the first Kala Pola 19 years ago there were only 38 artists and it was only in the 2nd year that John Keells Holdings (JKH) started to sponsor the event, which has now grown to some 300 artisans, sculptors and painters from all around the country.

 The event, which was initially created by the George Keyt Foundation to provide opportunities for young artists all over the island, is now fast becoming one of the biggest outdoor street art
markets in the world.

 The Chief Guest at the opening of the 2012 Kala Pola, His Excellency John Rankin, the Head of the British High Commission, who stopped off for refreshments at the Cinnamon Grand hospitality tent, with JKH Deputy Chairman Ajit Gunewardene, was most amused by the food art.

 One cheeky art buyer was so taken up by the sheep that, he offered to buy them, but Chef Weeraman although thrilled by the offer, had to sadly decline it, because “food art only lasts a day or two, so we cannot sell it. Only enjoy it as part of the delicious line up of goodies that were consumed in this exciting gallery of food that left a smile on everyone’s face,” he said

The Galle Music Festival, the sister event of the Jaffna Music Festival  returns to Galle this March.
The festival will host an exciting line up of musicians, dancers, performers and ritualist at the Samalana Grounds in Galle.

This year the focus will be on traditional and contemporary music and dance and  over the weekend of March 3-4, the scenic Samanala Grounds in Galle will be transformed into a colourful and vibrant music village celebrating Sri Lanka's unique, rich cultural heritage paying homage to the wealth of rhythms, rituals and dances.

Joining the exciting line up of local artistes will be International performers from Bangladesh, India, Norway and Palestine. The local and International traditional folk artistes will lead simultaneous performances from Saturday to Sunday 10.00 a.m. - 1.00 p.m. followed by a main stage performance from 5.00 p.m. - 10.30 p.m. daily.

The two day line-up of national and international artists will include Sanni Yakuma-Paravahera, Kolam-Mirissa, Rookada-Ambalangoda, Sampradaika Jana Gee-Alawwa, Kaffer Manja-Sirambi Adiya, Kali Kambatam-Akkaraipattu, Vasanthan Koothu-Kadduwan, Kovalan Koothu-Mullaitivu, Vaasappu-Mannar, Adivasi- Dambana, Sangeeth Bhawana-Galle, Evolution-the choir of the University of Visual and performing Arts, Centegratz and B& S with Ashanthi, Umara, Umariya, and Randheer.

It was exactly 50 years ago. A coup d’etat by military and police high-ups with a senior civil servant, was planned to take place on the night of January 27, 1962. The conspirators believed the politicians were ruining the country through maladministration. Mission ‘Operation Holdfast’ was expected to be accomplished within a few hours.

Many perceived the botched attempt as a last ditch effort by the military elite to safeguard their eroding position. They were propelled by an overriding feeling of loss of power and the status that they enjoyed.

Others viewed it as the result of rapid Sinhalisation of all parts of the government paying scant respect to the interests and aspirations of other major non-Sinhala speaking citizens. Other contributory factors were the campaign led by N.Q. Dias, the Defence Secretary championing the ‘Sinhala-Buddhist’ cause and the powerful Minister, Felix Dias Bandaranaike’s speech in early January, in support of an authoritarian system of government.

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