Delhi arts week's third edition from Saturday

Delhi's art and culture scene is all set to heat up with the third edition of the Contemporary Arts Week with a stellar line-up beginning from Saturday. The eight- day-long cultural extravaganza will see 120 performances of 300 artistes from various fields across 45 venues.

Organised by Friends of Art, the festival will open with an arts and food carnival in Nehru Park on Saturday with multiple stages, a workshop corner, a dedicated food and beverages section, and DIY corners for graffiti and craft.

The Indo-electro band Bandish Projekt will open the weekend along with dance performances by Sadhya Dance Company and The Danceworx.

Set up in 2013 by dancer and choreographer Shohini Dutta, the third edition will see the inclusion of Nehru Park, Select City Walk and DLF Promenade with an eye to accommodate the increasing crowd.

"The response when we started Contemporary Arts Week in 2013 with 17 events in a week and an audience of 5,000 was astounding. In the next year, we managed 10 days of performances with 35 events and 18,000 people. The response in the two editions has been overwhelming and we hope to build on these audiences with new performers and new venues," said Dutta.

The shows include dance, music, photography, theatre, short films, visual arts, puppetry, clowning, improv theatre, open mic and spoken word.

Some of the highlights from this edition are performances by Amaara, a contemporary dance production presented by Navdhara India Dance Company ,the Bandish Projekt and Indo-Spanish production "Under the Poplars".

Another highlight will be a two day street dance battle that will be judged by French house dance legend Kundu.

Some of the other artistes who will be performing during the festival include alternative rock band Chaos in the Capital, Delhi-based duo Basanti aur Woah and The Yellow Bucket among others.

For theatre lovers, there will be a play based on Harold Pinter's "The Lover" and directed by Sangeet Natak Akademi award winner Aditee Biswas.

"Our hope is not only to be a bridge between artists and audiences but also to provide platforms for artists to see each other's works, be inspired, collaborate and create," said the event's director Pankaj Bajaj.

The event also promises to entertain people of all age groups with world renowned puppeteer and puppet designer Anurupa Roy in action on October 10 at Instituto Cervantes.

Under the solo series, Instituto Cervantes will also host senior artists from various genres to showcase their performances. Some of the performers include Yuko Harada and Nikolina Nikoneski(dance), Happy Ranjit and Saif Ali (theatre), Varoon P. Anand (improvised theatre).

The event will conclude on October 10.