Mumbai’s Neighborhood Winter Festival kicks off ahead of Christmas

The highlight this year is the Shillong Chamber Choir, a multi-genre band. The Big Mountain, 2 Blue, and Black And White will also perform and there will be special shows by ventriloquists. Puppet and magic shows and musical concerts will also be there.

A musical evening will be organised on December 24 at Rang Sharda to commemorate the late Mohammad Rafi’s 98th birth anniversary. Music composer Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia will be awarded the Mohammad Rafi Lifetime Achievement Award and singer Dilraj Kaur will be presented with the Mohammad Rafi Award.

A special musical evening to offer tribute to the late Lata Mangeshkar will be organised on January 4 at Carter Road in Bandra West.

“There will be unlimited fun, frolic, merrymaking and an eclectic way of celebrating the occasion, nothing but a potpourri of all. We Indians love celebrating umpteen fiestas throughout the year and there cannot be a better occasion than NWF22 to bring communities together,” said Shelar.

According to Shelar, “The BJP loves to be a part of festivals where people across communities participate in large numbers. After the two years of the pandemic, this year the BJP ensured that people celebrated all the festivals with the same excitement and enthusiasm.”

The festival is the brainchild of local activist Dereyk Talker of KCT Entertainment. “Our society is highly fragmented, so much so that at times we don’t even know who our neighbours are. That was one of the reasons to start this festival, basically to meet new people and to build communication between one another,” Talker said.