Featuring experimental mando and choir performances to a soundscaped picnic and immersive art experiences, the three-day event will be held in Aldona
Sultry Mist, a contemporary music and arts festival is back with a new edition. Co-founded by Goa-based artiste Shivani Gupta (of HH Art Spaces, official curator of the 2025 Kochi-Muziris Biennale) and Violeta Lisboa (a Portuguese artiste who merges performance, theatre, and electronic elements), the event will be held from February 28 to March 2.
The first day will begin with The Mando Muse, an experimental, multi-disciplinary collaboration that pays tribute to the Goan mando.
This show is produced by cultural producer, journalist, and electronic music historian Kenneth Lobo. The Mando Muse began as a months-long research project in 2020. Taking inspiration from the Creolisation theory of Prof Ananya Jahanara Kabir, the project will explore how the mando was the originator of ‘fusion’ music, decades before it became a thing, and what it means to translate that music in the current landscape of live and electronic music.
This immersive event at The Ice Factory, Olaulim, will be hosted by performance artiste Nikhil Chopra, who will reprise his character of Nikki, a Goan who has returned to her roots in search of her identity. The evening will be soundtracked by a a sonic collaboration between musician Omar de Loiola Pereira and electronic music producer and DJ Caroline Lethô. Her performance with Pereira and his band will conclude their week-long residency exploring the roots of Goan music. The evening will also feature Lisboa’s ‘Army of Waiters’ who will take charge of proceedings for the sumptuous dinner prepared by chef Geeta Paintal, with enchanting, shape-shifting characters.
The evening will also feature music conservator, archivist and DJ Leaxan Freitas, who will curate music from his vinyl and cassette collection of Goan musicians from Aldona.
On the second day there will be an Edible Walk in the forest with Dr Maryanne Lobo. Goa’s famed Stuti Choir, led by master conductor Parvesh Java, will then be performing at the courtyard of Corjuem Club.
This will be followed by Art Attack, an avant-garde multidisciplinary project that explores the boundaries between theatre and performance art with the help of electronic and musical equipment. Lisboa’s improv troupe Art Attack will perform in role and costume a vivid variety of performances with a locally assembled house band.
Artist and curator, Aradhana Seth, will also bring her Merchant of Images (a public art project, which involves a mobile photo studio) to Corjuem Club. The project is a social experiment that encourages people to reflect on their surroundings and the images they create.
Day 2 will end with Berlin duo Acid Aktiv, comprising Max Volume and multi-media techno-sculptor Pauline Kess. The duo will present a live A/V project immersed in machine-generated funk and electro bass.
Sulty Mist’s final day begins with soundscaped picnic at Olaulim Backyards featuring lecture demonstrations, and tastings (urrak, feni, beer). Goa-based acoustic conservation studio, Sound.Codes return to immerse the swimming pool at Olaulim Backyards with aural delights. Indophile Swiss music geek, Da Saz, will also bring his synth experiments to the outdoor lab.
Malini Akrekar and her daughter Amalia, will be curating the brunch. Guests can simultaneously take in art curated by Goa-based HH Art Spaces, an artist-run movement.
Featured artists include Roma Narsingani, in collaboration with Cellsense.Bio, who will create screens and linked structures to evoke an illusion of the landscape. Munir Kabani will produce interactive, experiences, pushing the boundaries of photography and visual storytelling. English-Irish multidisciplinary artist Pollyanna Saville will bring her reflective sculptures to play will with perception while Madhurjya who uses a variety of tools to critically re-examine dominant histories of the North-East will reimagine landscapes and juxtapose terrains for Sultry Mist.
The music performances will include Sangeet Natak Akademi Award winner Ustad Bahauddin Dagar, acclaimed British-Goan musician Auntie Flo (Brian d’Souza) and DJ Andrea Young.
