The Hindu Business Line : India fest in Amsterdam to ‘blend cultures’

A veritable public-private partnership to mix business with festivities is what is going to mark the forthcoming Amsterdam India Festival (AIF) in the Netherlands from November 12 to 30 for commemorating the historic Indo-Dutch cultural affinities and commercial relations spanning over centuries.

The foretaste of the AIF synoptic programmes to be staged in Amsterdam was provided to a select audience at the Embassy of the Netherlands here on Wednesday, enlivened by a mellifluous bansuri (flute) recital by Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia and a delectable dance by the disciples of Pandit Birju Maharaj. Billed the largest-ever India event in the Netherlands under the rubric “blended cultures”, the festival would showcase over 100 performances in Amsterdam’s top institutions of numerous Indian art forms such as music, dance, theatre, fashion, architecture, photography, fashion, figurative arts and multimedia.

Key performers during the AIF in the Netherlands include renowned Indian artists Birju Maharaj, Zakir Hussain, Amjad Ali Khan, Chitravina N. Ravikiran, Purnima Chaudhuri, Anup Jalota, S. Subramaniam, Rajasthan Folk Music Ensemble and Sujata Mohaptra.

To add spice to the palates, expositions such as “Building India”, highlighting Indian architecture and a broad programme encompassing every facet of the rich Indian cinema would be on display, highlighting the variegated fineness of India’s contemporary art and culture.

Interestingly, the main sponsors of the Amsterdam India Festival include big corporates such as Akzo Nobel, Corus, ING, KLM, KPMG, and public bodies such as the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), the Municipality of Amsterdam and the Dutch Government.

Ambassador of the Netherlands to India Bob Hiensch gushes that the AIF would be “a very big event in the Netherlands to put India on the Dutch commercial and cultural map”.

Sounding also pragmatic, he said that the Dutch business could help in many facets of Indian agriculture, such as distribution, ground water management, quality control, besides a lot to offer in the field of scientific operations.

Complementing the cultural extravaganza would be a business summit with a business delegation of Indian companies led by the Union Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath.