Encounters India Bazaar & Beyond Bollywood

Saturday 18 & Sunday 19 May

For one weekend in May, the chaotic and riotous colour and sounds of a Mumbai market will be transported to Brisbane.

The ENCOUNTERS INDIA BAZAAR will transform the Cultural Forecourt of QPAC and locale with dozens of stalls offering Indian food and crafts, fashion and henna painting, meditation and spiritual nourishment, as well as a dazzling array of music and dance.

The weekend will be opened by the Lord Mayor of Brisbane, Councillor Graham Quirk, who will also participate in a public discussion about cities and sustainability with his counterpart from Hyderabad, India’s sister city.

From 4pm on Saturday afternoon BEYOND BOLLYWOOD, an all-ages free public concert, will take to the stage in the Courier-Mail Piazza. Leading the line-up will be one of Brisbane’s favourite local musical ensembles, Topology, led by composer-bassist Robert Davidson, a longtime aficionado of traditional Indian music.

An exciting collaboration between the Australian Art Orchestra and the Sruthi Laya ensemble from South India will follow. Since 1996, members of the AAO have been working with their Indian colleagues to produce new pieces which deftly illustrate fusions of the two musical traditions. On this occasion, anticipated to be the last collaboration of its kind, the musicians will present new works under the evocative title “Between Two Oceans”.

Leading members of the AAO will be supported by jazz students from the Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University who have been engaged in workshops during the course of the ENCOUNTERS week.

Following a short break, the music resumes at 6pm with a set from the Queensland Youth Symphony Big Band, under their director Rafael Karlen.

The surprises of Bollywood will begin at 7pm, with a battalion of taxis disgorging a troupe of Indian singers and dancers, a flying violinist and Bollywood music and dance from Brisbane’s leading musicians, bands and dancers. The event will be hosted by Nicholas Brown, himself a renowned Bollywood singer-dancer.

From roughly 9pm, the final hours of the evening will be surrendered to Indian DJs who will invite the Bollywood dancers and singers to coax members of the audience to Bolly-dance into the night.

In all, this weekend-long explosion of Indian music, dance, food and ritual will be long remembered as many Brisbane people make their first passage to India – without the need for a passport!

9.00am to 6pm, Saturday 18 May & 9.00am to 4pm, Sunday 19 May

ENCOUNTERS: INDIA is presented by Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University as an extraordinary seven day festival, with more than 70 leading artists from India and Australia across 70 events exploring the links between these two neighbours.
www.encountersfestival.com.au

Ends

MEDIA CONTACT: Lauren Suto, 0418 799 544, l.suto@griffith.edu.au