Urdu Festival in Delhi begins with ghazals, qawwalis

The Urdu Heritage Festival in Delhi features cultural events, performances, and competitions, expecting over 10,000 attendees at Central Park.

The annual four-day Urdu Heritage Festival returned to the Capital on Thursday, offering a plethora of cultural events, ghazal and qawwali performances as hundreds of people crowded the Central Park in Connaught Place to see performers such as Salman Ali, ghazal singers Ahmed Hussain and Mohammed Hussain.

Singers Shiv Rajoria and Jyotsana Rajoria at the festival on Thursday. (Raj K Raj/HT PHOTO)

Organised by Delhi’s department of art, culture and languages in collaboration with the Urdu Academy, well-known qawwali singers, the Sabri brothers will give the closing performance on Saturday, starting from 7.30pm. Another major attraction during the festival will be Syed Mukarram Warsi, who will perform at 3pm on Sunday.

“The festival is organised with the aim of promoting the Urdu language and culture, besides also celebrating its deep connection with Delhi. The average footfall in the event is usually 3,000-4,000. We are actually expecting at least 10,000 or more people in the next three days, considering it is the festive season and there is a weekend,” said an official affiliated to the Urdu academy on condition of anonymity.

The festival will offer competitions for students like bait-baazii (a verbal game and a genre of Urdu poetry played by composing verses of Urdu poems), qissagoi (storytelling) and Urdu quiz starting at noon every day. Delhi residents will also be able to attend book exhibitions, calligraphic displays, and visit souvenir food stalls at the festival, which is not ticketed and open to all.

The festival was originally held on the Red Fort lawns. However, in an attempt to popularise the festival, it was moved to Central Park in 2018. The February edition of the Urdu Heritage Festival this year was arranged at the Sunder Nursery.

“We wanted to arrange the current festival in Sunder Nursery as well but it was not available, and considering the popularity of Central Park, we arranged it there,” the official said.

The festival will feature five live performances every day, from 1pm-1.30 pm till 8.30pm-9pm.

The festival is set to feature Masood Hashmi and Anas Faizi on Friday at 2.30pm, as they tell the ‘Dastaan Dilli Walo Ki’, a Sufi mehfil by the Indian qawwali group, the Qutubi Brothers on Saturday at 1.30pm, a performance by the Sufi and classical Indian vocalist Dhruv Sangari on Saturday.

The festival will come to a close on Sunday with a performance, “Rang-e-Nishaat”, by singer Harshdeep Kaur, scheduled for 7.30pm