This year, other than the bauls and fakirs of West Bengal, we will have a big team from Kushtia in Bangladesh and there will be a special programme of qawwali by Mohammed Ahmed Warsi and team of Rampur, taking the festival beyond Bengal, such as we did last year by inviting Prahlad Singh Tipaniya.

The 8th Baul Fakir Utsav of Shaktigarh, Jadavpur, will take place in the weekend of 5-6 January 2013. As you know, we do this entirely with friends’ support–personal contribution, advertisement in our journal, space for your banners and posters, support towards our CD from last year’s festival, stalls on the festival ground and so on. But this is a non-corporate, non, NGO, no-governmental event and so far it has worked this way. A bit of a struggle, but the rewards are big. For those of you who have been here, you know that it is a wonderful free and shared space for listening to great music by great musicians. For those who haven’t, try and make it to the utsav this year. Also, there is a group on facebook, which you might like to join.?http://www.facebook.com/groups/Baulfakirutsav/.