Mahindra Blues: India's home of the blues

For lovers of roots music, February in Mumbai means one thing: the Mahindra Blues Festival, billed as one of Asia's largest celebrations of the blues. It's a reminder that India's festival culture reaches far beyond electronic and Bollywood.

Mahindra Blues brings international blues legends and rising talent to an iconic Mumbai venue for a weekend of soulful, guitar-driven, deeply felt music. The atmosphere is intimate and reverent — a crowd of genuine music heads there to witness masters of a storied genre, not to rave.

The festival has done enormous work in nurturing an appreciation for the blues in India, bringing acts that fans would otherwise never see live and giving the country's own blues and roots musicians a marquee platform. It's a labour of love that has become a fixture of the Mumbai calendar.

If your idea of a great night is a searing guitar solo rather than a bass drop, Mahindra Blues is your festival. Soulful, world-class, and unlike anything else on the Indian calendar.