Saudha Bangla Music Festival is returning to East London

Saudha Bangla Music Festival, one of the finest celebrations of Bengali music outside the Indian subcontinent is coming to Rich Mix this Sunday (18 September at 5 pm) for the eighth year. The festival was launched in 2012 by one of the leading platforms of South Asian Arts in the UK, Saudha Society of Poetry and Indian Music and it was initially based in different venues around East London, then it spread out to other areas of the city, e.g. Camden (Keats House), Westminster (Portcullis House), Nehru Centre (Mayfair). The festival ceased to happen in the last two year due to Covid restrictions. The festival showcases the grandeur of a long heritage of Bengali music that evolved from 730AD and grew meaningfully with a wide spectrum of subtle classical, semi-classical and popular genres. The finest singers of Indian and Bangladeshi origin traditionally join and perform at the festival. Curated by poet Ahmed Kaysher and supported by Tower Hamlets Council, this year's festival is celebrating the 70th anniversary of the language movement in Bengal. The director of Saudha Ahmed Kaysher said, "It's wonderful to be able to appear to the audience again after a two-year hiatus. It's great to see what the festival means to the audience of the city and the followers that we have created in the last 10 years from all different cultural heritages, from all around the city and beyond.Kaysher continued, "The festival now became one of the major festivals of world music with its world-class presentations by the best of Britain. The session at the Rich Mix will mainly feature haunting performances by the child prodigies from South Asian diaspora in East London."