5:30 AM to 7:30 AM
Jaswant Thada
Full Festival pass/ Day Pass/ RIFF dawns pass Rs. 200/-

Idu Khan Langa, young maestro of the alghoza, the Surnaiya Langa’s archetypal wind instrument, begins our second dawn concert. His soulful and melodious tunes are both uplifting and insightful, reminiscent of a profoundness that only large, open spaces like the desert can give us. Kuula Hetke (literally ‘listen to the moment’) then takes the stage to transport us to another space altogether. This improvisatory duo breathes magic into their flutes, taking us within ourselves, a different meaning for each listener. Young flautists Kärt Pihlap and Katariina Tirmaste have a very unique storytelling artistry that can’t be tied down to the realm of words. Greatly influenced by folk music of their mother country Estonia, and their own personal histories, their music is crafted out of stories of love, loss and returning to oneself after it all – not unlike Rajasthan’s own epic ballads. The melodies are simply ethereal and flow seamlessly. It’s impossible to hear them play without gentle waves of a pleasant past washing over you.

9.00 AM to 10.30 AM
Chokelao Mahal
Full Festival pass/ Day Pass

Kathak like never before with Tarini Tripathi
A former athlete, a functional trainer and an award-winning, young, third generation classical dancer, Tarini Tripathi grew up surrounded by Kathak.  She brings her unique legacy to Jodhpur RIFF, an invigorating session of dance, introducing us to this beautiful form of movement. Kathak derives much of its beauty from subtle expressions, graceful hand movements and intricate foot movement enhanced by the resounding bells of the ghungroo worn around the dancer’s ankles.

Tarini has trained and performed alongside her mother Gauri Sharma Tripathi and grandmother Padma Sharma, both eminent names in Kathak. She has successfully incorporated dancing into her career in fitness training too, advocating the artform as a way of core building and balance training. This session gives us a taste of Tarini’s simple philosophy, that dance is a way of life in every sense.

Jodhpur RIFF presents rustic dance ‘bootcamps’, facilitated by noted practitioners and trainers. Short, intense, and rigorous, these camps will give participants an experiential insight into the movements and practice of traditional dance forms.
Please Note:
This is the one-and-only, stand-alone session.
Please wear/ bring appropriate and comfortable clothing that allows free movement such as T-shirts, long/ loose shirts or blouses, tights, loose track or harem pants or long skirts.
Do carry your own rehydration and drying material. Be prepared to sweat! It is a boot camp!!

10:00 AM to 5:00 PM
Venues throughout the Mehrangarh Museum
Museum Entry Ticket/ Full Festival pass/ Day Pass

Discover the myriad hues of the traditional dance forms of Rajasthan, reflecting its distinctive root traditions, some popular and some rare, including: Chang Nritya– a charming, captivating dance, with men swaying and grooving while playing a round frame-drum called chang;  Teraah Taali – known for agility and grace, where women move to and produce the reverberating sounds of teraah i.e. thirteen little cymbals or manjira that are fastened to their waist, wrists, elbows, and hands, simultaneously showcasing their skills of movement, balance and concentration; Mashak – the strains of Rajasthan’s own bagpipe, unique to certain regions, particularly Mewat.
As you wander through the Mehrangarh Museum in the fort, taste these wonderful flavours of Rajasthan rarely seen, with the Chang, Derun, Teraah Taali, Mashak and Gair.

11 AM to 1:00 PM
Chokelao Bagh
Full Festival pass/ Day Pass  

The key music traditions of Mewat – Bhapang, Mashak, Jogiya Sarangi, Khari dance are brought to Jodhpur RIFF this year, in collaboration with young bhapang maestro Yusuf Khan. Born into a Muslim Jogiya family in the village of Mungaska, Alwar, Yusuf comes from a lineage of world-renowned folk musicians. His grandfather and father were esteemed bhapang players, and this traditional instrument holds a significant place in their family’s musical heritage. Despite being an engineer by profession, Yusuf’s deep passion for his traditional Mewati folk music mirrors that of his father Umar Farooq Mewati’s. And like his grandfather in 1993 and his father in 2007, Yusuf’s exceptional talent and unwavering dedication to this art form and the music of Mewat have brought him national recognition through a recent state award.
Yusuf’s aspiration is to carry forward the legacy of his family, focusing on promoting and preserving the rich heritage of Mewati folk music, and Jodhpur RIFF supports this effort.
We encourage our audiences to get to know these unique traditions of Mewati music through dialogue with the artists themselves.

Jodhpur RIFF’s interactive session series gives the audience a rare opportunity to meet fascinating artists from various root traditions. The sessions encourage audience members to engage and discuss challenges, forms and traditional practice through performances, lecture-demonstrations and facilitated conversations. As more and more of Rajasthan and India’s rich traditional cultural heritage disappears, Jodhpur RIFF puts the spotlight on some of its remarkable music forms and traditions nearing extinction and opens dialogue to surface and explore how these challenges could be addressed.

5:30 PM to 7:00 PM
Jaswant Thada
Full Festival pass/ Day Pass/ Moonrise Pass Rs. 500/- 

Highly accomplished, national award-winning, All India Radio’s leading classical flautist Avadhoot Phadke welcomes the Sharad Poornima moon with a mellifluous flute recital. The bansuri, the Indian bamboo flute, demands great precision and breath control from the artist for a smoothly flowing melodious expression. But Avadhoot makes it all look so easy and natural.  He plays like the flute is an extension of himself. Born into a musical family, he started training with his mother Dr. Rasika Phadke from a very young age and then later, under eminent teachers Shri. Raghvendra Baliga, Pt. Shankar Abhyankar and Pt. Rupak Kulkarni. The free spirited Avadhoot is open to all kinds of musical traditions. In addition to his classical work, he has also featured in Hindi film songs alongside popular composers and singers such as Sachin Jigar, Ankit Tiwari and Sukhwinder Singh.
His performance at Jodhpur RIFF will feature another highly accomplished musician Mrugendra Mohadkar on flute, accompanied by the ace young percussionists Rupak Dhamankar on tabla and Pratap Avadh on pakhawaj.

7:30 PM onwards
Old Zenana Courtyard
Full Festival pass/ Day Pass 

Bulund Aavaazein, Kalbeliyon ki
Mohini Devi​, Sugna Devi and Asha Sapera open the evening performances with a selection of traditional ​Jogi (aka Jogi Kalbeliya) songs. Each an enthralling vocalist in her own right, they are the few female singers left who carry on what used to be a robust musical tradition. The women of this originally nomadic Jogi community regularly sang along with serpents that the community is famous for handling. When the practice of catching and raising snakes were outlawed under wildlife preservation laws the women gradually created a movement and began dancing to represent the snakes that were an integral part of their culture. Over time the Kalbeliya dance form has overshadowed the musical traditions of the Jogis, with only a few women left who remember and perform these disappearing songs. What is also remarkable is that not many women vocalists can match the high pitch of the been (pungi), the reed-like instrument which is a hallmark of the Jogi Kalbeliya, the way Mohini ji and Sugna ji can. Their astoundingly unique voices and passionate presence make for a wonderful and captivating performance.

Jeff Lang and Greg Sheehan
With 25 music albums and multiple ARIA awards under his belt, Jeff Lang is Australia’s most accomplished slide guitarist, songwriter, singer, composer and music producer in the Blues and Roots genre. Beginning his musical journey at the age of 12, and still as gutsy and prolific, Jeff is ranked among the leading guitar players in the world. Returning to the Jodhpur RIFF* stage after 10 years, Jeff is accompanied by long-time friend and collaborator Greg Sheehan.
Having started his journey as a 4-year-old mesmerised by the first drummer he saw perform live, Greg Sheehan hasn’t stopped drumming for the past 60 years! His practice has stayed diverse throughout the decades, including collaborations with artists like Blackfeather, Goanna, Shane Howard, The Black Arm Band and many more. Today, Greg is equally loved as a performer, teacher, visionary, and a highly respected music producer*.
*Jeff has had a long-standing, remarkable collaboration with Asin Khan Langa and a band called Maru Tarang. Greg produced the informal closing ceremony at the Commonwealth games in 2018, that featured the Dhol Drummers of Rajasthan.

Interlude: Dholak
Jodhpur RIFF presents a performance featuring some of the best young folk dholak players from Rajasthan. Led by Feroze Khan Manganiyar, Rajasthan’s foremost dholak instrumentalist, this display is an outcome of a series of masterclasses for young musicians, supported by the festival.

Smita Bellur
Trained as a Hindustani vocalist, Smita Bellur was among the first to be accepted as a student into a long lineage of qawaals (traditional male Sufi singers), the Warsi Brothers. She has practised Sufi music, imbibing from the best of Islamic mysticism. Her music deeply reflects her continuous and passionate engagement with the mystic, spiritual sects of Indian musical practice. She is well versed in the Sufi, Nirguni, Bhakti, Veerashaiva and Haridasa poetry traditions, weaving new depths into their ancient scripts with her melodious voice. Many of these poems combine worship and devotion with a deep romance and longing for an unmediated union with the divine. Today, many centuries after their original compositions, Smita’s ability to capture these complex emotions in her renditions is a true testament to her talent and commitment to her art. This night dedicated to the Sufi, promises to be one of the most memorable and magical nights at the festival. Her set features India’s leading classical Sarangi artist Dilshad Khan and will be supported by a range of folk musicians including Sadiq Khan on Dholak and Zakir Khan on harmonium.

Ars Nova Napoli
Jodhpur RIFF brings the music of the Napolitan streets to its stages, with the most accomplished young artists of the genre. Performing on the streets of Naples for the longest time before taking to the studios, Ars Nova Napoli has stayed true to their Campanian roots for over 14 years now. Their artistic practice is inseparable from the culture of the historic city of Naples, famous for street art and music. Born from a strong belief that artistic expression needs to be free and accessible to the common man, they have performed in countless marketplaces, alleyways, weddings and birthday parties across Italy, as well as music festivals around the world. Truly, no stage is small enough to keep them away. Marcello Squillante, Bruno Belardi, Michelangelo Nusco, Antonino Anastasia, Vincenzo Racioppi and Gianluca Fusco perform a wide variety of music ranging from Sicilian serenades, Neapolitan Classics, Calabrian tarantellas, extending all the way to the Greek rebetiko and Balkan music. Their constantly evolving music is equal parts festive and joyful, and a testament to the fact that art truly has and will always belong among the people.
India Premiere

00:00 PM onwards
Salimkot
Full Festival pass/ Day Pass

This year’s Club Mehran presents three fantastic back-to-back performances that are not to be missed:
Tropical Sounds by Nkumba System
A vibrant fusion of Afrobeat and Dancehall, Nkumba System brings to Club Mehran the best parts of African and Latin American music. We promise you some tropical, beachy tunes that may surprise, but, in no time leave you swaying and dancing along with the music. Their music maps several powerful themes like social justice, sustainability and freedom, but the undeniable charisma and infectious joy they bring to the stage is beyond captivating. Nkumba features a charming mix of Colombian and French artists Alejandra Charry, Jhon Socha, Nicolas Hobbe, Grégoire Sanchez and Guillo Cros.
India Premiere

The Dholworks
Jodhpur RIFF brings to Club Mehran a new collaboration with percussionist and producer Viveick Rajagopalan, bringing together the historical battle drums of Maharashtra with the Rajasthani dhol, centerstage. While the dhol tasha from Maharashtra boasts a rather violent male grandeur that few other drum combinations can claim, in recent years these drums have been instrumental in breaking gender stereotypes, with women strapping the heavy drums over their traditional sarees and performing on streets during festivals. The Rajasthani dhol, meanwhile, has had a gentler history and has always been ceremonial. This year, the two instruments come together like never before. Accompanied by Pranav Dixit on the tasha, Gaurang Dalvi on the jhanj, it is Swarangi Savdekar and Yaminee Khamkar on the Puneri Dhols along with the Dhol Drummers of Rajasthan Chanan Khan, Swaroop Khan and Rasool Khan, that will whip up a Dhol Tasha frenzy. The performance also features Vivieck’s own Konnakol with support from some fantastic young maestros on the khartal and dholak.
India Premiere

ChontaDJ
Jodhpur RIFF proudly presents South America’s silkiest sounds by ChontaDJ aka Alejandra Gomez, a regular at Glastonbury and at Fuji Rock playing the best modern and traditional music grooves from Latin America, often surprising but always uplifting, daft and glorious all at once.
A unique and highly respected artist and producer on the Colombian music scene, Alejandra is the founder and director of Biche, an alternative music production house based in Bogotá and Cali, Colombia, that focuses in the creative and executive development of atypical and avant garde Latin sounds. Cofounder of the collective Todopoderosa for gender diversity in the Latin independent music scene, she is a DIY publicist, educational agitator, vinyl selector and underground promoter who deeply believes in collaborative and horizontal work.
India Premiere