Qld Multicultural Festival 2009

I flew back from Japan in time for the Queensland Multicultural Festival, held annually in Roma St Parklands, central Brisbane. For most of the day I hung around the BEMAC Ceremonial Stage - the more traditional, quieter music - although I did venture over to the Lake Stage to see Josh Bennett and Jay Dabgar, and also for my own set with Tibet2Timbuk2, who rocked as usual! :-)

Yasodara Sri Lankan Drummers

Shruti Abhiram (vocal), Joseph Abhay Nand (harmonium), Arthavan (mridangam)

Asim Gorashi and family (Sudan)

Indian Turkish Fusion: Vijaya and Menaka Visvanathan collaborating with Feridun Avar; Arthavan on mridangam

Saikat Bhattacharya (sitar) with Shen Flindell (tabla)
Unfortunately this set was very short - only 25 minutes with very little sound check - and I had to rush away at the end to get to...

Tibet2Timbuk2 - Shen, Tenzin, Marcello
This was our first show with Marcello since Tenzin and I got back from Japan. We have a great sound together. I've started singing a lot more harmonies after that Japan tour (or trying to sing harmonies, anyway).

Jay Dabgar (tabla) and Josh Bennett (dilruba and sitar)
Josh and Jay are based in Adelaide and had two sets at the festival: this photo is from their afternoon set on the Lake Stage. They did an excellent longer set in the evening on the Ceremonial Stage with Jay giving a solid Benares Gharana tabla solo, followed by an adept sitar performance by Jay, who has certainly been doing excellent practice.