The Bera Fest 2017
View(s):‘The Bera Fest 2017’, the International Drum Festival, to coincide with its melodious tenth anniversary of popular percussionists ‘Naadro’ will come alive at the ‘Viharamaha Devi Open Air Theatre’ in Colombo on Sunday, 26th November starting at 9.00am.
The day-long event which starts at 9.00 in the morning will indeed be a memorable one for amateur percussionists, percussion enthusiasts and music lovers who will be treated to a drum circle, photo booth, recording studio, trade stalls, food stalls, chill out areas, drum workshops, exhibition stalls with drummers on stage.
They will be exposed to a mind-boggling variety of instruments and percussion styles and sounds from around the world with percussion workshops featuring world renowned artistes like Giovanni Hidalgo (US) – better known as the ‘king of congas’ Pete Lockett (UK) another world renowned percussionist who is known for his pioneering efforts to blend western percussion melodies with those in Asia, Ravbandu Vidyapathi, Aruna Siriwardana, Elephant Foot, Jananath Warakagoda and a special segment featuring drummers of leading bands in Sri Lanka.
Naadr comprises of Gayan Manokumara, Nupathi Nilambara, Ranga Nuwantha, Uthpala Niroshan, Chathuranga, Nuwan Liyanage and Lahiru de Silva.
‘Unity has been our strength and I think this was the best way we could celebrate our 10th anniversary’ said Rakhitha
The whole day’s event will be open to the public free of charge and it would be an ideal family outing too. But there will be a nominal ticket rate of Rs. 1000 for the main concert, with limited VIP tickets at Rs. 5000/-.
Sunday’s event will also feature the percussion bands of the three armed forces, the Police and selected schools too. In addition it will for the first time have three top sound engineers Malinda Lowe, Pushpakumara Batangala and Vinod Melpitiya working on the same platform. Veteran music director Mahesh Denipitiya will direct the music orchestration in unique style while popular singer Chitral Somapala, Kasun Kalhara, Lahiru Perera, Bathiya and Santhush and Daddy will perform at the show singing their original drums-based songs they did with Naadro. Arun Dias Bandaranayake will be the MC of the Show.