Chennai joins music festivals around the world at Culturas 360

The city’s IndieEarthXchange has tied up with a host of other festivals to bring 19 global musicians together online this weekend

When Namgar Lhasaranova sings the song of her people, her voice carries. It is easy to imagine it stretching across the vast plains, from where stems the Buryat-Mongolian tradition embodied in her songs. But the music she plays with her team — and will now be presenting to an international audience — also transcends her roots. “We have an international family with different roots. I am a woman from a distant remote place, a village, the daughter of shepherds, and I grew up on folk songs. My husband Eugenii is a city guy who grew up on the music of the Beatles and rock bands. We had a different upbringing and paths of life that were far from each other, but at some point we ended up in the same team,” she says over email.

This weekend, Namgar will join 18 other musical acts from different continents, to play at the online music festival Culturas 360. The festival is a collaboration between 14 music festivals located in different parts of the world, in an attempt to give musicians an online platform in the wake of the pandemic. Participating festivals include India’s IndiEarth Xchange, Mozambique Music Meeting, Cuba’s Havana International Jazz Festival and USA’s Concert of Colours, among others. This will be its second edition, the maiden one having been in 2020.