Marghazi on the sidelines of Metro Rail work

A few sabhas have changed the venues and some of them have even provided dedicated numbers for rasikas to call and find out how to get to the new location

After 22 years, the annual Marghazi music festival organised by Naadhabrahmam has a change of venue. With different landmark venues in Mylapore in the past, the festival has moved to a new venue at Arya Gowda Road in West Mambalam.

Reason: the ongoing Chennai Metro Rail work in and around Mylapore. The decision was hard but inevitable.

“There is enough traffic on the stretch because of Metro Rail work and we did not want to add to the stress of artistes and rasikas by hosting the festival in Mylapore,” says N. Subramanian, founder, Naadhabrahmam. The seven-day concert starts every day at 5 p.m. when the traffic volume is generally high.

With a maze of diversions to facilitate CMRL’s phase II project where underground metro stations are being constructed at Thirumayilai, Mandaveli and RK Salai, this infrastructure work is a topic of discussion for a majority of the organisers as the sabhas are located around these regions.

Unless one plans their trip well in advance, they are likely to get caught in the traffic, say rasikas. Brahma Gana Sabha moved from Sivagami Pethachi auditorium, located inside M.Ct.M School in Luz, to Dakshinamurthy auditorium in R.K. Mutt Road last year, just before the Metro work could begin in that region.

“Metro work was the reason why we shifted to this new venue last year itself,” says S. Ravi Chandran, secretary, Brahma Gana Sabha.

They are happy that they took the decision early on as currently Sivagami Pethachi auditorium, a popular venue, is not being used by any sabhas.

There is only a small section opened for school students to enter the campus and the area around it is eaten up on account of Metro Rail work.

“It is not an easy decision to change a venue as people are used to coming to one place and that sticks with them,” says Ravi Chandran, adding that for 18 years the auditorium attached to the school has been the venue for Brahma Gana Sabha.

Many sabhas do not like to change the venue so some have made their own adaptations.

For the first time, Rasika Ranjani Sabha’s annual December festival has a QR code that rasikas can scan to know the easiest route to get to Sundareshwarar Street in Mylapore, where the concerts began on December 13.

The front page of the invitation lists the mobile number to call on.

Sri Parthasarathy Swami Sabha, which is conducting its festival from December 14 to January 2 at Vidya Bharathi, Bheemasena Garden Road, has not changed its venue but they are getting many calls from music enthusiasts asking how to reach the venue.

Sri Parthasarathy Swami Sabha has given contact numbers in the invitation and advertisements with a person assigned exclusively from morning to evening to answer queries about access and routes.

Published - December 14, 2024 10:31 pm IST