MUMBAI: The folk and fusion festival Paddy Fields organised by Nesco events on 7 and 8 October was a mixture of Indian folk with various singers performing on different kind of music from various part of the country. 

On the first day it experienced Sonam Kalra and the Sufi Gopel Project performing the sufi music to to Susheela Raman, a British-Indian musician with roots in Carnatic music. It was followed by Sunita Bhuyan on the violin performing on Assam folk and at the end of the day all the energy was lit up with Nooran sisters engaging the crowd into Punjabi folk.

The second day was started by veteran classical singer Shubha Mudgal peforming on Uttarakhad and Uttar Pradesh folk with her few bollywood hits. Soon followed by Kalpana Patowara, popularly known as Bhojpuri Queen, who being an Assamee, performed Bhojpuri folk. Tipriti kharbangar from Shillong who for this event had specially rehearsed for Khasi blues and performed it for the first time and at the end was gorgeous Sona Mohapatra with her rockstar performance on Odia folk songs and then folk songs from across the country.

The season two of Paddy Fields was organised by Nesco events at Nesco with an exclusive line-up of India’s top most women folk and fusion artists it creates a platform for the talented women story tellers in our country to take center stage. This exclusive festival has created a platform for talented artists across rural and urban India.

As an added and exciting feature they had planned to curate songs including Khasi Blues, Bhojpuri, Uttarakhand, Tamil Nadu, Punjab. Meghalaya, Assam and Delhi and the singers lived up to crowd’s expectation.

The event has brought a massive revival of soul music and promises to take the genre of folk music to a new level by giving regional musicians and artists a larger platform. It also offers a heady mix of fusion giving the festival a modern-day context.

The singers were too overwhelmed to be performing in front of a huge crowd who kept cheering for the singers. Many of the singers even appealed to the organizers to have them for the next year too to perform at Paddy Fields 2018.

Shubha Mudgal said, “It was a great experience to be performing on Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh folk music. This is a great event with a super theme and performers”

Sona Mohapatra, who performed on Odio folk said, “This is super. I want to be part of this even next year. It is a different event to celebrate Indian folk music.”

Nesco ltd CEO Dibakar Chatterjee after the event said, “We are thankful to the entire singer and the crowd to have been part of the event and to make it a great and successful one. He announced the Paddy Fields 2018 to be organised on October 6 and 7,   2018. 

Turnkey managing director Atul Churamani said, “This time we wanted to get folk songs from various parts of the country and give them a new twist. The folk music is based on stories, most of which are narrated by women and so the thought about it came in and the idea seemed good. The event showcased the music talent of our country.”