Visit to Sunday Soul Sante, March 2014, Bangalore
Sunday Soul Sante is a recent phenomenon in Bangalore. The first Sante took place in 2013. Any Bangalorean who keeps track of happening events in Bangalore, I am sure is aware of it. But for those who do not know – it is an urban form of flea market with large dose of food, music and stage performance thrown in. It brought back memories of the annual fair that used to come to my native town. Soul Sante this time took place on 9th of March 2014 at police ITBP cricket grounds, Whitefield. It is organized by Bangalore Mirror, a Bangalore daily newspaper (part of Times of India group). The events started from 10 am and was supposed to continue till 10 pm. Bangalore Mirror was giving free passes for first 100 visitors who went with that day’s Bangalore Mirror newspaper copy. Being a long and sunny day, I decided to go there by late afternoon. The entry fee was Rs 100 per person. I reached there by 5 pm and encountered a sea of traffic near ITBP cricket ground and Ascendes park mall. Was able to park my vehicle on a side by lane.
It looked more like a upper class flea market but nothing much flea about it. One might have to drive a hard bargain. People (specially women) took this opportunity to show their fashionable side. Women should enjoy this as most of the items available were women centric. Coming to events – I was expecting them to happening but they turned out to be not that catchy. The fashion show featured participants from among the crowd. However, it was fun when the kids were walking the ramp. Tried to do little bit of people photography by walking around the stalls. There were tons of photographer there. Looks like some Facebook group had done their photowalk there on that day.
Beer was available and noticed a funny incident near the beer counter. Someone had stacked baskets which covered the Kingfisher logo. Suddenly a man had arrived and started shouting on the boy sitting in beer counter. His contention was that the brand should never be covered. If it is not visible then then the sponsor will be angry and a phone call will arrive. Now that says how much important branding is to a brand!
I kind of started to feel little bore and decided to leave before the Prasad Bidappa fashion show. Going on the number of crowds Sunday Soul Sante is a success. I came to know recently that the organizers want to build on this success by replicating it elsewhere. So it was no surprise when I heard that they are planning to organize Sante in Pune as well.
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