Contemporary Arts Week is a celebration of contemporary performing arts of all sorts organised by Friends of Art every year. Be it theatre, dance, painting, short films, photography, puppetry, or live music – Contemporary Arts Week serves it all on a platter that can be devoured by art connoisseurs as well as a 9 to 5 corporate employee to a college-going yuppy.

We had attended Contemporary Arts Week last year and are glad to see that it is getting bigger by the year. There are almost 120 performances included in this year’s festival and just like the spirit of art, the festival is not bound by one venue. Contemporary Arts Week 2016 is a multiple venue festival, where opening week performances are at Nehru Park and the rest of the days, the festival is on at LTG, Instituto Cervantes, Epicenter, Zorba, Summer House, Bunta Bar, Courtyard unplugged along with some other locations.

At the entry, we saw a calligraphy artist painting the name of the festival on a huge board. Her skill at her art was jaw-dropping.

Since it was the first day of the festival the preparations were also underway. They had erected a huge stage for evening performances.

No event in Delhi NCR is complete without food. On the other side, we saw a food court in the open where they had stalls for coffee, biryani, and kebabs along with beer, beverages, and other food items. 

Near the food court was a smaller stage where the band “Play it by ear” were belting out some English numbers and their singing added much-needed relief to this unexpectedly sunny afternoon.

Almost like a college fest, a group of youngsters started dancing to the tunes of their songs. Their performance was free-flowing, fun, and free of any inhibitions. They also included a young mother with her kid, a journalist, and some members of the audience in their dance.

A series of photographs from the project “The Road Never Ends” executed by the members of the group Karmayatri were pasted on a camping tent along with some paintings done by kids.

Some stalls were displaying artwork, stationary, and cloth items done by artists using new techniques that are environment-friendly and are also functional. One of the stalls had stuff made by hearing-disabled artists.

A special art workshop for kids was also a part of the Contemporary Arts Week 2016. We saw many kids having a fun time with color sprays and rollers and painting on a dedicated wall for this project.

This colorful and vibrant event is a nice and subtle way of ushering in the cultural bonanza that we get to see in Delhi on the onset of winter and festival season.