On Friday 26th July, crowds of musicians and dancers will descend on Liverpool Hope University’s Creative Campus for an exciting week of training, performance and interactive lecture demonstrations.
Milapfest’s annual summer schools for Indian music and dance, Music India and Dance India, take place at the same time this year, meaning that for a week over 120 students and teachers will live, work and play together. As if that wasn’t enough, our annual performance festival, Indika, also takes place across all seven nights offering our audiences a host of opportunities to join in.
The festival opens on Saturday 27 July with a family friendly garden party just outside our home venue, The Capstone Theatre. In addition to performances and workshops, we’ll be joined by Brouhaha International, their famous giant puppets and a troupe of Trinidadian Indian drummers and dancers who’ll lead a procession around the garden from 5pm. Plus Karma Foods will be offering some of the most delicious Indian food this side of the Indian Ocean!
We’ll be heading outside again on Sunday 28 July and Thursday 1 August for two early Morning Raga concerts at 8am. Uniquely, Hindustani music is played to rāgas (melodic scales), which are prescribed for a particular time of day, a mood, or a season. When played in this way, the music or raga is heard as it was originally intended and with maximum effect. The Morning Raga concerts have been some of the most memorable and best loved concerts of previous years, and with the glorious weather we’ve been enjoying what better way to start the day that with a gentle and uplifting concert in the sunshine.
We hope you’ll join us for what’ll be our most ambitious and exciting project to date!