Bridging the gaps in genre, and language through music
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Text and pictures by Dilantha Dassanayake
Kacha Kacha is a music event that sees the bringing together of different social classes and music genres. It is the brainchild of Imaad Majeed a musician and poet. He first started off organising gigs at a café called Charcoal in Mount Lavania to build a platform for his own music.
Last year Colombo Scope invited him to curate an event with different performances. So he got together a group of bands, rap artists, poets and singer songwriters and chose to have the event at the Castle Hotel Pub. The regulars were more than welcoming and the spectators that came to the gig loved the space. He held two more gigs including a night celebrating “The Last Night at The Castle”. The space has now been knocked down due to the redevelopment of Slave Island.
Imaad has now turned his attention to a spot in Pettah called the Metropolitan Hotel. “We chose Sunday because it’s a low volume day. We are then not too intrusive on the clientele and their space.” Imaad said. Kacha Kacha’s following are generally middle class to upper middle class and social mixing occurs with the working class that is rarely seen in Colombo’s nightlife.
Imaad crowd funds his events so that all the gigs are free. “A ticket price can create a classist scenario. We have the event in all three languages to maximise the amount of communication.” Imaad said.
The event indeed sees people from all walks of life. There are tuk tuk drivers in sarongs, hipsters with piercings, expats from the UK and Russia. A tailor who works two streets over named Daarshik Viswanathan said “I come here three times a week, sometimes only for a short while. Its great to see new people to have fun and talk too.”
A place like this never gets female clientele, however there were many who had turned out and all said they felt safe and where not harassed. In fact the regulars are very welcoming and curious at the new faces. Harsha Aravinda lead vocalist from the band Local said “during our sound check we had a few labours come up to us and say that they felt the vibe of the music, that was nice.”
By the end of the night a few were seen dancing to the music right next to the band never once bothering a sole, simply feeling the rhythms.