Festival to promote Agra's musical heritage

Agra will host its first music festival in an attempt to revive and "promote its musical heritage across the globe".
To be held on February 25, the festival will see several performances by popular faces of the music industry including playback singer Aditi Singh Sharma, Rajasthani musician and singer Kutle Khan with his team and Indie-Rock band from Delhi 'Bandish' among others.
With support from Ministry of Tourism, the event will be held annually.
"The city once famous for legends of World Music like Tansen and Nauhar Bani, lost its musical charm as the time passed. With Agra Music Festival we aim at restoring and promoting the long lost Agra musical heritage around the globe. Agra Music Festival is an annual event to promote Agra as Music Destination around the world," the organisers said.

Apart from "promoting the musical heritage of the city", the festival also aims to raise funds for the underprivileged kids of the city.
"All the funds raised by the festival will be used to build classrooms for these children," Ashish Gupta of Round Table India Foundation said.

The festival is expected to receive about 2000 attendees, the organisers expect it to increase by another 1000 people next year when it will be a two-day event.
"The Agra Music Festival will be one of the biggest musical events of India in 2018 when more than 30 international bands will perform on four grand stages, and the audience will be as large as 3000.

"The two-day long event will be organized in a musical village spread over approximately 100 acres of land on Taj Express Highway," D K Singh, festival curator, said.
Singh said the festival is "supported by the Ministry of Tourism's Incredible India campaign".