Saturday, August 3, 2024 | 5 PM – 9:30 PM
Join us on August 3, 2024, 5 PM – 9:30 PM, at BomBay to the Bay: A Garba Dance Festival featuring live music by Bay Area garba legends Madhvi and Asim Mehta, a dance lesson, community dancing, and artists to explore! Garba is a Gujarati indigenous and folk dance practiced by all ages to live drumming, singing, and instrumentals during joyous celebrations.
Arrive at 5 PM for a short garba class dressed in your own cultural finery. This multiracial, multireligious, and multiethnic garba festival supports an Oakland-style expansive vision of solidarity and joy, so get ready to dance Bay to Bay, across the world! This event is co-hosted by Reetu Mody and OACC and sponsored by the Activate Oakland Event Sponsorship Program.
While this event is free, registration is required.
Live Music and Performance By:
We’ll be welcoming Bay Area garba legends Madhvi and Asim Mehta alongside their percussionist and live dhol player. Madhvi and Asim are bringing raas-garba music with a flair to BomBay to the Bay!
Website: http://www.kampmusic.com/bio.htm
EVENT Q&A
Dress Code:
Dress up to dance! Feel free to wear South Asian, traditional Gujarati, attire from your heritage, or anything that is colorful, slightly formal, and easy to move in. All global attire is welcome and we encourage everyone to participate fully in the dancing and opportunity to dress up.
For Gujarati garba celebrations, people often wear elements of traditional Gujarati attire including a chaniya choli (a long wide skirt with a crop top and scarf) and/or kediyu or kafni pajama (a gathered long sleeve shirt and pants). Traditional clothes for garba are colorful, embroidered, mirrored, and often have cowrie shells on them. In the dance space people will take their shoes off to honor the feminine divinity/goddesses. If you are able to take your shoes off (we know that different accommodations require people to wear shoes), we suggest you take them off.
Garba is one of the many circle folk dance traditions that exist all over the world and all those heritages are welcome to join together here. If there is a piece of attire from your cultural background you would love to wear- this is the place for it!
What if I don’t know how to do the dance?
You’ll learn! Like all folk dance traditions, everyone does the dance together from ages 1-100. You’ll move in your own style and the steps are easy to pick up. The point is to experience the exhilaration and the joy of moving together, not to look exactly the same. If you need a break, there will be chairs to watch other dancers and there are artists to visit both in the auditorium and the adjoining artist room.
Who should I bring?
Everyone is welcome! This is a space committed to liberation for all people all of the world and is explicitly about joy in a multiracial, multireligious, and multiethnic folk dance space.
What should I bring?
Bring shoes you are comfortable taking off (if you are able to), a waterbottle, and dandiya sticks (two Gujarati dancing sticks) if you have them.
What if I am not South Asian, can I still attend?
Yes! Everyone is welcome. And if you have South Asian clothing that you want to rock as a non-South Asian, this is an event you are welcome to do so at. Just bring your love and respect!
