Kult X organised a 3 day River Festival from 17-20 February, 2022 which was a series of short pop-up performances at Champatala & Ahiritola Ghats. Pickle Factory was asked to imagine Day 1 at Champatala Ghat by bringing in a performative element that lent it a new dimension and experience.

For the first day, Bharatnatyam artist Guru Rajdeep Banerjee and his troupe ‘Parampara’ performed a contemporised neo-classical form of the dance as an invocation to the River Ganga. The second day witnessed a blend of Baul music, Kabir’s songs and folk music by the duo, Shayan Sinha & Amit Kumar Dey. The next day was a street theatre performance at Ahiritola Launch Ghat titled ‘Chandu ban gya gentleman’ directed by Harsh Sharma and performed by Mridang Theatre Group. The festival culminated with a film screening called ‘The Dying Ghats of Calcutta’ by Poulomee & Atreyee followed by a panel discussion.