Delhi’s heritage sites turn stages for Ghazals and dawn-to-dusk concerts this weekend

New Delhi: This weekend, Delhi’s historic monuments will double up as concert venues. On October 11, about 500 people are expected to gather at Safdarjung Tomb to listen to Vishal Bhardwaj sing ghazals and talk about the stories behind them. The evening, organised by IBTIDA – Ek Mehfil, is called ‘Ghazal Aur Baatein’.

There will be music and poetry, but there will also be Safdarjung itself, the sandstone and marble mausoleum rising behind the gathering, its garden and fading Mughal grandeur doing some of the work that a concert hall normally leaves to lighting designers.

Around the same weekend, Purana Qila will host a different musical experiment. Inkpot India is bringing Amrita Kaur to the fort for ‘Dusk to Dawn’, the third chapter of its Songs of the Stone series. One performance takes place as evening falls on October 10, the second begins the following morning.

Music is only part of the programme. There is storytelling, food, craft, textiles and the opportunity to experience the fort as daylight disappears and then returns.