The upcoming Lok Utsav to be held in Barefoot College, Tilonia and in Ajmer, Rajasthan is a roots music festival with a difference. Along with a celebration of musical traditions, it roots for the dignity of the performers and attempts to bring out those fading notes of their repertoire that get lost in performance-centric events. The festival will organise performances of over 150 folk artists from all over Rajasthan. This year Tilonia plays host to musicians of the Carnatic tradition welcoming them to play along with Rajasthani musicians. The first Lok Utsav was organised in 1984. The Lok Utsav 2026, scheduled from February 26 to 28, brings three generations of artists, many of whom have been a part of the festival since their childhood and now return to share the stage with their children and grandchildren. This musical legacy and generational association with Barefoot College, Tilonia gives the utsav a distinctive depth. The artists have an emotional connect with this event as well its organisers. The Lok Utsav 2026 is dedicated to the memory of Komal Kothari, a renowned ethnomusicologist (he was actively involved in every edition of the Lok Utsav), Tripurari Sharma, writer, playwright and theatre activist and Sakar Khan, kamaicha exponent and guru to generations of musicians in western Rajasthan. It also celebrates the artists who have passed on. The performances will include the music of the Langa, Manganiar, Kanjar, Kalbelia, Dholi and Sansi communities, amongst many others. Classical singer Sangeetha Shivakumar and Ghatam player, Sumana Chandrashekhar will perform and join a residency on women and music, along with artists, women folk singers and Medha from the Strangers Choir.The community involved in curating the festival – Barefoot College, School for Democracy, Khamayati, Amanat Trust, and Rupayan Sansthan – has been working for and with folk artists for over many decades. Artists come with their “traditional repertoire, happy to be recognised as musicians, knowing that the audience wants authentic performance,” Paras Banjara, co-curator of the festival said. The Lok Utsav has been steadily reshaping the narrative of hierarchy and continues to separate the classical from the folk. The coming together of these two genres, emphasises that discrimination between classical and folk musicians has to be bridged. The repertoire of the Langa and Manganiar, is as complex as the classical, with ragas clearly defined. But they are victims of the hierarchy of class, caste and gender. Rupayan Sansthan and Tilonia have worked to bring equality in recognition and respect. The fantastic music of the desert has now been acclaimed the world over. The musicians and performers have travelled with Rupayan and Komalda (Komal Kothari), have sung and played with Yehudi Menuhin, Zakir Hussain and other eminent musicians at the Royal Albert Hall, the Kennedy Centre, the Carnegie Hall, Bolshoi and dozens of other places of repute. The festival promises to be evocative and informative. There are many spaces for a vibrant confluence of performances, participatory workshops and reflective conversations. In tune with the syncretic ethos of Rajasthani music, embedded in the Sufi tradition and the legacy of Khwaja Sahib Moinuddin Chishti, the festival will open with invocatory chants of all faiths.The learning process begins with children learning very early from their mothers. Langa and Manganihar, children from the Komal Kothari School of Folk Music, inaugurate the festival. Women musicians across genres, including Carnatic women musicians – the well-known vocalist Sangeetha Sivakumar, violinist and mridangam players Haritha N., Ashwini S. and Sumana Chandrasekhar on the ghatam (she has recently written a book called The Song of the Clay Pot) – will come together in a residency with Rajasthani folk musicians Dariya Bai, Hanifa Bai and Maangi Bai. They will explore and stitch together, a performance called “Women in the Musical Tradition,” dedicated to Rukma Bai Manganiar, the only woman musician who stormed the male citadel of musicians of Western Rajasthan, and held her own. There will be a performance in Tilonia and another at Sophia College, Ajmer preceded by a Lecdem.With Holi round the corner, the Kalbelia community will sing traditional songs and dance with the Chang. Exceptional dancers applauded by their audience in the Bolshoi, will dance Chakri. Aerophonic, the wind instruments, such as the Surnaiya Langa – been, murli, surnai, shehnai, murla, narh – will educate the audience of their many variations and nuances. The Marwari Khyal, a magnificent operatic form that has dwindled from its many groups to just two, perform stories of history and tradition. Once a popular medium of entertainment and information in the villages of Marwar, this is now an endangered art form. The lesser-known Katha-Gatha, a nuanced storytelling performance tradition, will also be showcased.There will be a session on the role of bajra in musical composition and expression, conducted by Kuldeep Kothari. Komalda believed that cultural expression changed with different agricultural patterns. Kuldeep Kothari’s lecture demonstration on bajra, will be a dialectic between culture and agriculture. The roots of cultural expression are rooted in both.The word lok denotes the people. Folk music, too, belongs to everyone. And so, Lok Utsav has consistently been a site of exchange where artists, communities and audience get equal respect. The festival is democratic in both principle and practice. When music returns to its roots, it returns to its truth. The Lok Utsav has fostered a cultural climate, where the artists perform as much for themselves as for the audience. A rendering of Sufi music in the Dargah of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti in Ajmer by a group of Manganiar and Langa artists will be a musical offering, the songs different from their regular repertoire. The human voice is used to invoke and pray, as much as it is to ask for justice. The activists using traditional folklore and songs have been an important part of Rajasthan’s formations to assert their constitutional rights. Music has the power to make and bind collectives. The Rajasthani activist song created by Naurti, Mangi and Billan, fighting for their right to access work in 1987, is now sung all over Rajasthan, “Behna Chet Sake Toh Chet,” based on a popular folk tune will form the base for a musical workshop The Strangers’ Choirby Medha Sahi bringing a contemporary perspective to a popular song. The utsav is as concerned about performance as it is about the artists, the instruments and the musical tradition. Rare musical instruments like the surinda and narh accompanied by the sindhi sarangi and the kamaicha will introduce the instruments to newer audiences, placing the argument for its survival in the centre of cultural rights. The utsav is also a forum for cultural conversations. Livelihood and survival demand attention from policy makers and entitlements. The patronage of the Rajwada long gone, the government has an obligation to guarantee basic democratic and cultural rights. The School for Democracy will organise discussions and workshops. Two sessions – Challenges in Musical Expression and the Rights of the Performing Communities – will take up these discussions. In these dialogues, oral historian Sohail Hashmi, will converse with social and cultural activists Nikhil Dey, Shankar Singh, Ramnivas, Paras Banjara, Kuldeep Kothari along with traditional artists to explore their rights, entitlements, challenges and prospects.In a performance entitled Virasat, 30-35 musicians across three generations of the Langas and Manganiars will sing together. The performance, the Dialogue of the Drums will mark the finale, a musical jugalbandi of percussion instruments at the utsav. The entry is free and open to all.There will be a dedicated space on the Barefoot College campus for the artists and audiences to access old videos of previous Lok Utsavs. A few links to them are: View this post on Instagram A post shared by Shweta Rao (@shwetara0) View this post on Instagram A post shared by Shweta Rao (@shwetara0) View this post on Instagram A post shared by Shweta Rao (@shwetara0)Shefali Martins is an independent journalist. Aruna Roy is a social activist and founder member of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS).