On a regular weekend evening, amid the honking autos and the tossing sounds of roadside kadalai, guitar strings cut through the noise on the city’s pathways. Heads turn. Feet tap. The band plays on — determined to turn every street corner in Chennai into a stage. The city-based musicians’ community, On The Streets of Chennai, is marching ahead to take their music — played on the city’s wide, narrow, busy, and quiet streets, beaches, and metro stations — to garner global attention.
Today, on World Music Day, the group will be playing genres of music for 12 hours non-stop at Pondy Bazaar. “This is phase I of the ‘Mission on the streets’ initiative, under which, by August, we will complete 100 shows. Earlier, we performed 25 shows a month; now we want to schedule 6,000 shows a year and make Chennai the street music capital of the world,” shares Senthil Raj, a musician.
Mayor R Priya will officially launch the event. Additionally, at the venue, the audience members can leave a public message on a canvas and dance to cinema, indie, classical and western songs performed. “We have various sessions where all kids will be performing, one with all girls, indie artistes, and towards the end, a sing-along session along with the public is planned,” adds Senthil.
As a prelude to this massive celebration, the community had events lined up from June 14. Some of the events included a workshop on vocal health, an open mic for the general public, a special show for kids, and ‘artum paatum’, where art and music interplayed. The week-long events were conducted by On the Streets with the GCC. Senthil shares, “GCC has been a major part in getting the whole initiative of spreading smiles and happiness on the streets.”
Visit Pondy Bazaar today and become a part of the mission to make Chennai the 'Street Music Capital' of the world.