5:30 AM to 7:30 AM
Jaswant Thada (outside Mehrangarh Fort)
Full Festival pass/ Day Pass/ RIFF dawns pass Rs. 300/-

In true Jodhpur RIFF tradition, we begin the first of our dawn concerts with the gentle, soothing voices of the Meghwal, a community from the Marwar region in Rajasthan. While the community itself is not recognised as ‘professional’ musicians, the Meghwal (or Megh) are superb singers. Their patron saint is Ram Devji and singing bhajans in his honour is common in their villages.
Every year, the Meghwals of Marwar herald in the dawn at Jodhpur RIFF. Under the light of the rising sun on a cool, serene morning, the melodic drone of the tandura (an unusual string instrument with a very distinctive sound), the beat of the jhanjh/ manjira (small, paired-cymbals) and the rhythm of the dholak create the mood for the meditative strains of the bhajan (literally, ‘to revere, also to share’). This year, we present the legendary Mahesaram Meghwal (who also performed at the very first Jodhpur RIFF in 2007 and featured on the festival’s poster). An experienced and mature artist and a national icon, Mahesaram has a unique timbre to his voice and has his own style of singing the traditional sequential bhajan and storytelling forms of the Meghawal. Traditionally pit-loom weavers, the women are known for their contribution to embroidery and the textile industry, but also for the rich folklore they nurture.

08:00 AM to 11:00 AM/ 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM
Solo, guided immersive walk throughout the Mehrangarh Fort and nearby (60 – 80min)
Tickets INR. 800.00

An immersive, pedestrian-based mobile work, en route creates an experience where the personal and public, the imagined and concrete, converge. It is designed to facilitate one audience member at a time, experiencing an enduring memory-based personal connection to a place. A Jodhpur RIFF and India debut, en route is reimagined as a journey through the majestic Mehrangarh Fort – courtyards, hidden stairs, jharokas, and winding lanes transformed into living stages of reflection, memory, and surprise. Snippets of voice, music, poetic fragments, and philosophical musings interweave with onsite sounds and the trace of human presence, inviting you to see the space anew, as if for the first time. Experience an unusual relation with the place, as you move through a landscape of moments in motion, both discovered and co-created. Expect to be guided on a journey beyond space and time with this audio-based site-oriented project.

Please wear appropriate, weather relevant and comfortable clothing, and good walking shoes.

en route is presented by One Step At A Time Like This and Richard Jordan Productions in collaboration with Jodhpur RIFF

9:00 AM to 10:30 AM
Chokelao Mahal
Full Festival pass/ Day Pass

Back by popular demand, Marathi mulgi’ Aditi Bhagwat brings the sensational Lavani to Jodhpur RIFF 2025’s first dance bootcamp. Trained extensively in kathak from an early age and having developed numerous collaborations with jazz and flamenco, Aditi’s heart was always in her homeland and its artform. A real treat to watch, Lavani, both robust and delicate, is a folk form of song and dance popular in Maharashtra and in parts of southern Madhya Pradesh.

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 of this dance form.
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!!

9:45 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: 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; the Kalbeliya, a dance form that evolved when the traditional snake charmers of the state could no longer work with snakes; Khari Dance– revolving around a heartfelt dialogue between a couple, performed with a wooden basket called Khari; Tamak, or bam rasiya is a folk form from Alwar. Popularly performed to celebrate the harvest season, Tamak is characterised by huge Nagadas (Bam) that set the beat and the wooden sticks decorated with flowers and feathers that are used by the dancers; Bakri ka Mashak; the captivating vocals of Young Langa Musicians!

5:15 PM to 5:45 PM
Chokelao Bagh
Full Festival pass/ Day Pass

Rosa Cecelia
London-born and of Chilean-Italian heritage, Rosa Cecilia is a remarkable singer-songwriter who dissolves boundaries between cultures, genres, and personal truths. Raised in a trilingual household, she crafts a rich blend of root traditions – from Latin jazz and neo-soul to R&B and disco. Her bold, confessional songwriting explores themes such as queer love and immigrant identity, wrapped together in melodies laced with soulful hooks. On stage, Rosa is magnetic. Her performances are sensual, choreographed, and charged with emotional depth. Her artistry speaks of longing, identity, and joyful reclamation, inviting listeners into a live dreamscape that is impossible to look away from.

This is Rosa’s premiere festival appearance in India.
Jodhpur RIFF introduces the ‘singer-songwriter’ tradition to its line-up this year.

6:00 PM to 7:00 PM
Chokelao Bagh
Full Festival pass/ Day Pass

Lavani excerpts
Lavani is a Marathi dance form that stands out for its electrifying energy, flirtatious movements, infectious beats, and sensual grace. Lavani essentially carries narratives of women’s experiences characterised by the themes of love, longing, and challenges borne out of separation from their beloved, told in a light-hearted, often satirical manner. It is performed exclusively by women, and can be quite a theatrical experience. Trained extensively in kathak from an early age and having developed numerous collaborations with jazz and flamenco, Aditi’s heart was always in her homeland and its artform. A real treat to watch, Lavani, both robust and delicate at the same time, is a folk form of song and dance popular in Maharashtra and in parts of southern Madhya Pradesh. Made famous through V Shantaram’s film Pinjara, the Lavani was traditionally developed and performed by shepherd communities in the 18th and 19th centuries, often for the Maratha nobility. It is performed in a ‘nauvari ’saree (nine-yard-long saree) to the beats of a dholki and gets its name from the same root word as ‘Lavanya’, meaning beauty.

Inayat: A Duet for Four
Kathak-Rajasthani collaboration with Tarini Tripathi & SAZ
Originally commissioned for Jodhpur RIFF 2023, Inayat is a one-of-its-kind collaboration that has continued to grow and evolve long after their success on the festival stage. Mumbai-based exemplary Kathak dancer Tarini Tripathi and young masters of the Langa tradition – SAZ – return to present their unique collaboration, bringing two traditions together in a unique jugalbandi. Almost always performed to Hindustani/ classical instruments such as the tabla, here, Tarini performs her freshly choreographed pieces completely tuned to select, traditional percussion and songs of the Langa community and to Sufi kalaam, rendered by SAZ.
SAZ, incredible musicians of the Langa community, return to the Jodhpur RIFF stage after the tremendous success of their first original single – Sundar Gori, which released earlier this year. They are a young trio committed to the continuity of their tradition, while writing new songs and developing new work in collaboration with artists from across the world. As a former athlete and fitness professional, Tarini sees a synergy between movement and the energy of Sadiq Khan’s masterful dholak, Asin Khan’s powerful vocals and his Sindhi Sarangi (Asin is the recipient of the Aga Khan Music Award 2020-22; Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar 2022), and Zakir Khan’s amazing khartal.
For Tarini, dance is a dynamic extension of one’s being, where we express what we are afraid to do in routine life. Recently bestowed with the ‘Nritya Nipun’ from Nalanda Dance Research Centre, Tarini is recipient of the Best Dancer Award at PECDA 2022. She is also the Co-Director, Principal Dancer, and faculty at Amara Nritya Kala Hansa. Tarini has performed extensively in India and the UK, under the guidance of her mother, acclaimed dancer, and choreographer Gauri Sharma Tripathi, and her grandmother, the incredible Smt. Padma Sharma.
This collaboration is a Jodhpur RIFF commission

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

Ganga & Sundar
Mainstage opens with the unique vocals of Ganga & Sundar, guardians of a centuries old oral tradition of the Rajwadi Maand. Ganga started learning music from her mother, Sundar when she was 5. Sundar, in turn learned from her father. Hailing from the Rao community of Pali, this mother-daughter duo is known for their enduring work in breaking gender and social norms by reclaiming their space in a male dominated folk music landscape. They are widely known for their renditions of traditional spiritual songs in their own inimitable style.

Emilia Lajunen
Emilia Lajunen is one of the most captivating voices in Finnish folk today. With her five-string fiddle-Biancospino, Kontrabasharpa, and its more recent variation, Nyckelharpa, she conjures a sound that’s both ancient and curiosity-inducing. Her music pulses with trance-like rhythms, unexpected textures, and a raw beauty rooted in tradition but restlessly alive. It is earthy, hypnotic, and full of emotion, drawing listeners into a landscape where the old stories still know how to sing. This is perhaps why she’s been famously described as playing “like a village full of haunted fiddlers.”

A graduate and now longtime teacher at the Sibelius Academy, At Jodhpur RIFF, Emilia shares her own creations and her aural discoveries after exploring how body, movement, and old archive recordings, especially those of lesser-known women fiddlers, can shape a contemporary folk voice.

Ars Nova Napoli
After their successful India premier at this very stage in 2023, Jodhpur RIFF brings back the music of the Napolitan streets 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 almost 2 decades 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.

Padma Shri Ashwini Bhide-Deshpande is a distinguished vocalist of the Jaipur-Atrauli khayal gayaki tradition. Hailed as an exceptional talent among the “new generation of veterans”, she brings both reverence and fresh insight to Hindustani music. A music prodigy from her childhood, she earned the President’s Gold Medal at All India Radio as a teenager and had already completed her Sangeet Visharad at 16. The accolades haven’t stopped since, the most recent being a Padma Shri this year. A scientist turned musician with a PhD in biochemistry, Ashwini chose music, carrying forward a tradition instilled by her mother and guru, Manik Bhide. Her music is deeply introspective, often a journey of her explorations into the complex “achchop” ragas that are distinctive to her gharana. Although firmly rooted in khayal, Ashwini is equally adept in lighter forms like Thumri- Dadra, Bhajans, Abhangs, and Sanskrit stutis/stotras, many of which she accompanies with compositions of her own. Ragarachananjali, her book of self-composed bandishes, has
been heralded for its creative contributions to the Jaipur-Atrauli repertoire. Her concerts are marked by thoughtful artistry, a warm stage presence, and the rare ability to make even the most intricate music deeply accessible.

Midnight onwards
Rao Jodha Desert Rock Park (adjacent to lower car park of Mehrangarh Fort)
Full Festival pass/ Day Pass

Ek raat khaas lok kalakaaron ke saath…
Jodhpur RIFF presents a special Desert Lounge in the Rao Jodha Desert Rock Park. An all-acoustic evening with the sounds of Bikaner: vocalist in Seraiki/ Punjabi Mir Bassu Khan, a leading light among the Mir community from Bikaner.
The Mir-e-Alam are a semi-pastoral people of the Mirasi community of the Bikaner/Pugal region of Rajasthan and have a strong, beautiful musical tradition of spiritual music. They sing the poetry of Baba Farid, Baba Bulleh Shah, Shah Hussain, Sultan Bahu and Khwaja Ghulam Farid in Seraiki/ Punjabi. While recent years have seen an increased interest (and research) in their music, much of it remains inaccessible and unexposed to potential audiences. The challenges of eking a daily existence have taken a toll on the cultural heritage of this community, as have numerous socio-political factors which are largely out of their control. And yet, their voices remain strong and clear.

The Langa of Jodhpur
The Langa, known for their soulful folk music, they have always been storytellers, weaving history and everyday life into melodies. In earlier times, they would ride alongside their patrons into battle, singing of bravery and power to strengthen the king’s army. When the dust of war settled, their songs would either praise the glory of victory or honour the king’s sacrifice for his kingdom. Once, their music flourished under a patronage system, but contemporary Langas have learned to stand on their own — performing at cultural events, collaborating with artists, recording albums, and sharing their art with audiences around the world.
Younger generations are mentored by the elders, songs are passed down by ear, in courtyards and at festivals, ensuring that the rhythms and ragas remain alive. Even in changing times, the Langa of Jodhpur show that folk music can survive — not just as a memory of the past, but as a living, breathing tradition.

Musicians of Sanawara and villages nearby
Sanawara village, located near Jaisalmer in Rajasthan, is known for its vibrant folk music scene, particularly the Manganiyar tradition, who have a long history of performing for both Hindu and Muslim patrons, playing instruments like the kamaicha, sindhi sarangi, and others. Their music is a key part of the cultural landscape of the region, seen extensively especially during events like the Desert Festival. Led by Manzoor Khan Sanawara on vocals, joined by Sawaroop Khan on Dholak, Kareem Khan on Khartal, and Sikander Khan on Kamiacha, this experience is as rustic as you can get, sans electricity, surrounded by nature, against the backdrop of the legendary Mehrangarh fort.

As the music is acoustic (non-amplified) and the space is intimate, seating is on a first-come-first-serve basis. The slightest noise distracts fellow audience members and makes it hard to listen to the performers. We would greatly appreciate it if the audience refrained from chatting and speaking during the performance or while waiting to be seated.

Please note: The meeting point for the Desert Lounge for all audiences is in the Mehrangarh Fort lower car park at 11.50 pm or at the entrance to the Rao Jodha Park at 11.55 pm. The walk to and from the performance space is approximately 10 minutes from the lower car park: first on the road to the Rao Jodha Park entrance (5 minutes) and then in the park itself (5-8 minutes) – so please wear decent shoes for walking! Please carry something warm (it gets chilly); hot drinks & light snacks will be available for purchase.