Sunday Soul Sante, in association with Bangalore Mirror, was the place to be spotted at in the city on Sunday
When the ball-of-white-fur Django walked into the Sunday Soul Sante on his leash escorted by his owner, he was in for a treat — from colourful stalls, to fashionably dressed folk of different ages and lots of food treats… It was a mela.
It was a spectacle of Bangalore’s fantastic community spirit at this new venue at Embassy Riding School in Devanahalli. Geared to bear the sun with their shades and scarves, Bangaloreans were in for a picnic after an hour long drive from MG Road to the venue. “What I love about this venue is that there is no garbage or plastic or dust around,” says Asha Rao (59), founder, Soul Sante. “There is greenery all around. It’s a beautiful location.”
The average age group of visitors was between 20 to 28 and everyone at the venue shared equal enthusiasm. During the Bangalore Mirror Talent Show, children from the age group of 4 to 10 danced, sang and did some mimicry. The one that stood out was five-year-old Kaya Gupta who sang Give me some sunshine from the flick Three Idiots. “This was her first stage performance and we will walk out of this festival remembering that forever as proud parents,” says her mother Gunjan Gupta. Apart from the Talent Show stage that had people crowding around and cheering contestants, every stall had people hovering around shopping or window shopping.
From Meghna Khanna’s new jootis to Jayant Srikumar Gauri’s glow lanterns and even Manjunath’s OWL lamps, people were spoilt for choice at the Sante.
Many youngsters head to the Sante in search of kitsch stuff. Pink Jalebi was one such stall where youngsters were looking for laptop sleeves, purses and phone cases. Another popular stall was Rishabh Sachdeva’s Chalk Peace. This artist makes his works on Power Point. “It takes me three days to make a piece and Power Point is my canvas,” says Sachdeva as he shows off a notepad with a cover of his. Including the multiple food stalls serving a range of cuisines, there were 250 stalls at the Sante.
The crowd puller though was definitely Amrapali Shindhe’s melodious voice. While she performed at the main stage, people would rush from any corner of the festival just to hear her cover of Adele.
Rao concludes, “If I can pull the crowd here, I’d love to be in this serene location forever.” The crowd she did pull, because by 7 pm, it was bursting at the seams.
source: http://www.bangaloremirror.com / Bangalore Mirror / Home> Bangalore> Others / by Khushali P. Madhwani, Bangalore Mirror Bureau / November 12th, 2013