September 30, 2019, Mumbai: The Mahindra Group, a $20.7 billion federation of companies driven by technology and innovation has just announced an exciting new cultural outreach initiative called ‘Mahindra Open Drive’. This 2-day destination festival includes a road trip beginning in early November from four Indian cities – Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad and Bengaluru- culminating in a music and food festival on November 8-9 in Goa.
According to Jay Shah, Vice President, Cultural Outreach, Mahindra Group, “Mahindra Cultural Outreach offers an opportunity to celebrate life with its newest festival – the Mahindra Open Drive. This has been conceived for the city goer who needs to break away from the humdrum for a weekend filled with adventure, music and positive vibes. While the “drive” refers to the suggested way to come to the festival it also refers to the positive emotion of being motivated to do good, to be driven”
With a humanitarian spirit at its core, the festival will use music, the arts and culture to engage audiences and allow them to experience and understand this cause through story-telling and entertainment. It will comprise of a souk – showcasing local artisan-crafted products, an exhibition of Goa’s culture, performances by international artists, installation artists and a local and international cuisine feast.
The festival will feature a mix of international and local artists including headliners ‘Chico and The Gypsies’ who would accompany world and folk music sensations Raghu Dixit, Harouna Samake, Brooklyn Funk Essentials and Nikhil Dsouza. This eclectic mix of artists will embody the soundscape of the festival and complement the culture and ethnicity of Goa as a community.
The festival will be preceded by fundraising initiatives through which festival goers can pledge monetary aid to a cause they believe in and draw attention to NGOs and partner organizations actively involved in making a difference. This can be done by raising funds or donating to one of the 20 partner NGOs spread across various causes. Essentially, the fundraising is intended to support causes like Education, Healthcare, Safety, Livelihood, Environment and Rights & Inclusion.
As for the entries, Mahindra Open Drive is a one of a kind festival where you have to earn an invite. This can be achieved by buying donor passes – with the contributions going directly toward one of the partner NGOs chosen by the festival goer.
Supporting Mahindra is their official philanthropy partner for this initiative- United Way Mumbai – an establishment whose fundamental objective is to bring together individuals, companies, NGOs and government agencies to enhance community conditions with deeds that go beyond short-term charity.
Speaking about associating with M&M Ltd. for the Mahindra Open Drive, Jayanti Shukla, CEO of United Way Mumbai said, “Mahindra Open Drive gives the socially conscious generation of today a platform to convene and support causes while they enjoy the process and celebrate the successes of our real heroes, the diverse NGOs who are partnering with us at the event. United Way Mumbai has been associated with numerous innovative community impact projects, and it is exciting for us to be a part of an event that is fun yet with a strong element of giving back to the less privileged”
