Sufi music festival, Rajasthan, India

We are spoiled for choice with so many wonderful festivals happening in India. However, while the Jaipur Literary Festival is always interesting, it’s hard to top the Sufi Spiritual Festival.

And what a stunning backdrop for the Sufi Music Festival: Jodhpur’s Mehrangaur Fort, one of the oldest forts in India, which stands 400 feet above the city on a perpendicular cliff. Extraordinary artists from Azerbaijan, Armenia, Morocco, Iran, Rajasthan, Turkestan and Pakistan come together to make their art. Sufism is neither a religion nor a cult. It is a combination of Indian classical music, Rajasthani folk music, poetry and dance. Some of the music is rooted in Byzantine and Syrian origins. There is also a really beautiful hotel to stay nearby, situated at the foot of the fort, or for those seeking rural tranquility, peace and quiet, there is a stunning luxury tented camp, where one can ride beautifully trained Marwari. horses, or just spend time visiting the fort, Rohet Garh. One might even attend an opium ceremony among the elders, where problems are discussed and invariably resolved!

The Sufi Festival also takes place in Nagaur a few days earlier in February. This is wonderfully associated with the Nagaur Cattle Fair or Mela. Nagaur is much less commercial than the Pushkar Camel Fair and bustles with life during the annual cattle fair, although horses, camels and goats are also traded here.

However, think about the 5 days of the Rajasthani Folk Festival (RIFF). As renowned Telegraph journalist Lisa Grainger wrote of her visit, “If there is a more beautiful place for a music festival, I want to know it, because last October, lying on white linen cushions on a sacred hillside, I was convinced there was no other place as magical as this.”

“RIFF was devised by the current Maharaja, Gaj Singh II, to provide a stage for the country’s enormously talented but largely forgotten folk musicians, and to bring visitors, life and investment back to its magnificent but crumbling fortresses. By asking them to friends such as Sir Mick Jagger to help recruit international musicians and liven up the mix, they hoped to attract audiences of all ages for five days during the period of Sharad Poornima, the brightest full moon.

Classical music fans could listen to the sitar masters; young people could enjoy great Indian collaborations with world musicians; and clubbers could dance on loud rooftops to international DJs. During the day everyone could wander around the fort and enjoy children’s drumming sessions, pantomime, juggling, theater and whirling dervishes.”

And with so many beautiful forts, palaces, idiosyncratic heritage hotels and design-inspired boutique hotels to choose from, the next biggest decision is to try and choose between all these beautiful places!