Open Mic back on track in Kandy
View(s):When Adrian Selvarajah, 21, and Kishin Siva, 20, started organising Open Mic Night, Kandy, they expected maybe ten registrations and an audience of around 60 people. What they ended up with was more than triple the registrations and nearly five times the crowd. “We were so surprised!” Kishin says, still not quite recovered.
As Adrian puts it, they were “very very happy” about the turn out. The whole focus of the event is to help create and nurture a community of musicians in Kandy, and opportunities for networking, and the more people there are, the better this happens.
“There are always different ways for musicians to break into the performance arena, around the world,” Kishin explains, “but there’s nothing like that in Kandy. I have many friends like Adrian who are good musicians but who have no opportunity to perform. “Kishin laughs as he explains that he is quite aware music is not his forte, but he knew that his coffee shop/guest house just around the lake was a great spot to bring his idea to life. So he took his plan for an open mic in Kandy to Adrian, and the two decided that they would “do what they could do”.
Both have been very involved in the Interact Club, Adrian explains. The idea of giving back to society is something both young men have grown into their adulthood with. So even though they were not going to make any profit, and even though they were going to have to spend out of their small earnings to make it happen, Adrian was down for whatever.
What they didn’t expect though, is how successful the event turned out to be. The number of performers, the size of the crowd, the media attention they received – everything beyond the scale of what they imagined they were about to do.
Fueled by their success, and the very loud demand for more open mic shows, Kishin and Adrian are about to set up the Open Mic at Castelo, Kandy again. Be there next Saturday, January 24 for some good music, sparkling poetry, a shot of rap and definitely some good coffee and conversation, starting 5:00pm.