Food, music and Chennai favourites come together at The Hindu’s Food and Music Festival

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Paul Jacob's Folk Agenda team perform concert in The Hindu Made of Chennai food music festival at Island grounds in Chennai on Sunday.Photo: B. Velankanni Raj/ THE HINDU | Photo Credit: VELANKANNI RAJ B

After a month of celebrating Chennai through its history, heritage and culture, the Made of Chennai festivities will end where the city arguably feels most at home: around food, music and a crowd. The Food and Music Festival, set to take place at YMCA grounds, Nandanam on August 29, will bring together live performances, food brands and entertainment.

Music will take centrestage, with singer Chinmayi Sripada, Paal Dabba, Antony Dassan, Vihara and Makka bands bringing five distinct sounds to the festival. Each has a different relationship with Chennai, shaped by music, memories and the city’s audiences.

For singer Chinmayi, Chennai is a complicated home. It is the city where she grew up, learnt music and began her career, but also one that has seen the difficult parts of her life. “Chennai has seen every part of my very roller-coaster life. My upbringing, my music learning, my break, and my subsequent ban, all of this is Chennai. I think it has taught me a lot. In my most turbulent times, there are two temples that are very important to me: Kolavalli Amman temple and Kapaleeshwara temple. I’ve gone to these temples so many times. I think that’s the one place where I just allow myself to cry. I don’t care who’s watching,” she says.

At the festival, Chinmayi will bring some of her recent hits to the stage, including ‘Neelothi’, ‘Eppadi Vandhaayo’, and ‘Muththa Mazhai’.

Vihara’s sound moves between Carnatic music, retro songs, rock, blues and funk, a mix the band says Chennai has been receptive to. “For us, fusion is playing Carnatic on the guitar and mixing retro songs with rock, blues and funk. People have always been very accepting of listening to something new. When we play a Carnatic song at high energy, even the traditional crowd is very enthusiastic to listen to it, just not in a sabha!,” says Abishek Varadarajan, guitarist for the band.

At the Food and Music Festival, they plan to perform their versions of familiar Ilaiyaraaja hits and AR Rahman favourites, alongside a couple of independent songs written by the band.

This ecosystem has also shaped musicians who were not born in Chennai, but raised by it anyway. All three members of Makka are originally from Kerala, but grew up in the city, with much of their musical journey centred around Kodambakkam and its studios. “Chennai truly feels home because we were brought up in this beautiful city. Everything that we have today is what the city has given us and all the amazing songs, all the lovely hits, the love, the people, everything is what Chennai means to us,” says Ranjith Govind (vocals and ukulele).

For Aalaap Raju, some of his strongest associations with the city go back to childhood, when weekends meant trips to some of Chennai’s familiar public spaces. “I remember the trade fair. I used to go with my parents as a kid to Island Grounds.