DATE / TIME:             Noon on June 19 – noon on June 20, 2010

 

LOCATION:                           New Vrindaban Community, located south of Moundsville – Wheeling, off Route 250

 

FEE:                                         Free

 

NAME OF EVENT:                24-hour Music (Kirtan) Festival

 

CONTACT PERSON:            Sikhi Mahiti 

 

PHONE NUMBER:                 (304) 843-1600 x105

 

E-MAIL:                                  mail@newvrindaban.com

 

WEB SITE:                              http://www.newvrindaban.com/

 

DESCRIPTION:                    

 

Legendary kirtan artists – from across the US and beyond – will be traveling to Marshall County to participate in New Vrindaban’s Fourth Annunal 24-hour kirtan. Kirtan is a form of folk music that arose from the devotional Bhakti movement of 15th century India. The primary musical feature of kirtan is the use of call and response, a feature that also deeply informs Western bluegrass, gospel music and jazz. The form is simple: a lead group calls out the melodies and the mantras, and the rhythms build and accelerate. The audience responds by singing, clapping and dancing.

 

The mantras used in kirtan are mainly Sanskrit names for the Divine. Sanskrit is the oldest language known to man, and its sounds and their meanings are primordial. Kirtan is a consciousness-transforming and consciousness-raising activity. The mantras quiet the mind and the music frees the heart. Music and song are used to bring everyone together in a beautiful experience of collective expression of the Divine.