In Bengaluru, Cubbon Park's bandstand comes alive again

The Hindu

a day ago

Priya Chetty-Rajagopal's earliest memory of Cubbon Park's iconic bandstand is hearing the Madras Sappers, one of the oldest of three Madras regiments of the Corps of Engineers that are headquartered in Bengaluru, play there, back in the 1970s.
'The bandstand has military band origins, so it has always been about the military for me,' says the founder of the citizen-led initiative, Heritage Beku, which has been instrumental in reviving cultural performances at the Cubbon Park bandstand. The initiative, she says, was catalysed by this dream of bringing the military band back to the park. 'That is where it started: saying that we need the bands to play again because it offers a sense of such majesty,' says Priya, whose father was a Sapper too.
While the bandstand, first constructed by the British in the 1900s to showcase their military and police bands and renovated by the Horticultural Department a few years ago, was a point of beauty and aesthetics, Priya says, 'it was fallow, offering a visual perspective, but not enabling cultural interaction.' Performances used to occur here regularly, around two decades ago, but had become extremely sporadic.
This was something Priya managed to change in December last year, kickstarting the initiative with a recital by the Saralaya Sisters. Since then, come Sunday morning, around 8 am, it transforms into a public performance space, open to anyone who wants to experience a slice of Bengaluru's cultural heritage, including the park's many canine residents. 'We love the parkies (the dogs who live in Cubbon Park) and they occasionally bless us with their presence,' says Priya, who believes that bringing art to a public space is democratising. 'People are really so happy to see the bandstand come alive again.'
Triveni Saralaya, who performed on December 8 with her sister, Kavitha, says that the sound of classical music in the park takes her back decades. 'There used to be regular performances around 15-20 years ago,' says Triveni, who has herself been part of musical events in Cubbon Park, Lal Bagh and even Bugle Rock Park on many occasions. 'All these parks used to have concerts early in the morning, on Sundays, so walkers would be exposed to live music as they were walking.'
And it isn't just about the music. Dance photographer Sumukhee Shankar, who attended a dance performance, believes that having it outdoors helps bring out 'the raw energy in the dance,' she says. In her opinion, dancers have a different energy when they perform outdoors. 'They are so fresh, and instead of being in an auditorium with all that (artificial) light, it is only pure sunlight and fresh air,' she says. 'As an audience, I felt it was definitely a welcome change.'
Performance in the park
When Priya and her team decided to have noted artists perform at the bandstand, they knew they did not have a budget to pay them. So, they were a little worried since 'we were very conscious that you cannot undermine performers by not rewarding them for their performance,' says Priya. But soon a realisation dawned. 'Much as we respected them, we realised that just like we work pro bono for the city, artists are also open to it,' she says, adding that many of these artists were just happy to perform at the bandstand. 'They felt the nostalgia of it, of being part of something bigger than themselves. This generosity allowed us the space we needed.'
Over the last six months, Cubbon Park's bandstand has hosted numerous city artists, primarily those from the Indian classical tradition, including Vinita Radhakrishnan, Srijanee Chakraborty, Anirudha Bhat, Yamini Muthanna, and Anuradha Venkatraman. This movement has gained momentum, and Heritage Beku is currently being inundated with requests for bandstand performances, with many artists who have already performed here referring others to this venue, says Ruam Mukherjee, the curatorial director of Heritage Beku's Revival Series. She believes that the timing of the performances has contributed to their popularity. 'Artists perform in the morning at the bandstand and then head out for their paid engagements and gigs,' she says.
Right now, the focus is on the classical arts, 'because spaces like this are more suited to them. Also, there are other platforms for popular and film music,' says Ruam, who is also attempting to get younger talent on the stage since, 'in the classical genre, it takes years for a performer to perform in a space like this,' she believes. 'So, if their body of work has merit, we definitely try to showcase them.'
A special space
Ruam explains why this particular space is so special, a sentiment with which many of the performers also concur. 'It is a 360 °stage and they can see the audience directly,' she says. The many flowers blooming in the park around them at different times of the year, like the pink tabebuias and yellow jacarandas, enhance the spectacle. Also, since the stage is open, 'the way they use the stage is interesting, especially in terms of dance.'
For Derek Mathias, the band leader of Derek and the Cats, a Bengaluru-based instrumental dance jazz fusion band, one of the very few Western music performers who have been part of the initiative so far, playing here offered a surreal moment. 'Performing at 8 in the morning is so refreshing, since you feel the Sunday morning breeze, you hear the birds chirp all around you, and you are surrounded by greenery. It puts you in a very different headspace,' he says, a sentiment shared by Kavitha Saralaya. 'The fresh air and lighting are so perfect,' she says. 'And the way that bandstand is built, the acoustics sound so good.'
She firmly believes that bringing art to public spaces enhances culture. 'It is a beautiful ambience and a good way to revive classical music for the general public,' she says, pointing out that, unlike in a traditional performance space filled with rasikas, it is not a niche audience who ends up attending these performances. 'Many people who come there won't know an iota of classical music. But when they listen to it in that beautiful setting, something could be triggered in them,' she feels.
Ruam agrees that one of the nicest things about this initiative has been to see audiences of all ages, from all walks of life, in the city and outside it, coming in. Recalling how many people who were visiting Cubbon Park on Sundays, for a run or with their dogs, ended up staying for the performances, she further states, 'We have anywhere between 100-150 people in the audience in the bandstand on average, and, for the dance performances, it is always houseful.'
While Heritage Beku has bigger plans for Cubbon Park, whether it be going beyond Indian classical performances or introducing busking in the park, Priya says the focus right now is on continuing the tradition that has been established and 'building up a good, solid reputation so people know that the Sunday bandstand is here to stay.'