The ‘Mahindra Blues Festival in Mumbai | Feb. 5th-6th, 2011

‘Mahindra Blues Festival’ debuts in Mumbai

The Mahindra
Group today announced the launch of the first season of the Mahindra
Blues Festival. The festival, a first in India, will bring international
Blues superstars like Buddy Guy, Jonny Lang, Shemekia Copeland, and
Matt Schofield to Mumbai. The festival will also feature home grown
talent like Soulmate from Shillong, Saturday Night Blues band from
Kolkata and The Luke Kenny Mojo Jukebox. The two-day weekend festival
will be held on February 5-6, 2011 at the Mehboob Studio, Mumbai. As a
prelude to the festival, promotional gigs will be held at Blue Frog,
Mumbai, with prominent Indian Blues bands.

Speaking at the
Corporate Headquarters of Mahindra Group, Mr. Anand Mahindra, Vice
Chairman and Managing Director, Mahindra Group, said, “The Blues, an
American art form, ironically doesn’t get as much attention as it
deserves in the country of its origin, and indeed, around the world. We
would like the Mahindra Blues Festival to give this genre of music an
overseas platform in the way that Montreux has done for Jazz”.

The
Mahindra Blues Festival will play out at the iconic and retro Mehboob
studio on February 5th and 6th, 2011. The studio will be designed
specifically to create a Blues-like atmosphere, with three separate
stages for multiple concerts and sessions with the artistes.

The
build-up to the festival will see renowned Indian Blues bands like The
Beet Root Blues Band featuring Pratish Motwani & Milind Deora on
December 21, 2010 and The Luke Kenny Mojo Jukebox on January 11, 2011
both at Blue Frog.

Buddy Guy, a five-time Grammy winner, is the
definitive Blues artiste and has been a key influence on popular rock
and Blues artistes like Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray
Vaughan. Jonny Lang, the Grammy winning, former prodigy instrumentalist,
topped the Billboard New Artist chart with his first album at age 15,
and stands now as a mature creative force having created five beautiful
chart-topping albums. Shemekia Copeland is already a force to be
reckoned with in the Blues. She’s shared the stage with such luminaries
as Buddy Guy, B.B. King, Taj Mahal and John Mayer. Heir to the rich
tradition of soul-drenched divas like Ruth Brown, Etta James and Koko
Taylor, Copeland’s shot at the eventual title of Queen of the Blues is
pretty clear. By some standards, she may already be there. Matt
Schofield’s prowess as a Blues guitarist has taken his band to twelve
countries; seen him playing with iconic guitarists like Robben Ford; and
brought him high praise in the Penguin Book of Blues Recordings as one
of only two living British artists in recording history to gain a
maximum four-star rating.

The Mahindra Group has had a long
history of giving back to the communities it operates in. In addition to
a wide array of CSR programs, the Group has been consistently
supporting programs in Arts and Culture. The Mahindra Excellence in
Theatre Awards (META) celebrated its fifth anniversary this year. META
showcases and honours indigenous talent from remote areas of India in
New Delhi each year.

The Mahindra Blues Festival is an
International Festival and commences at a time when the Mahindra Group
is becoming increasingly global. The choice of Mumbai as the venue for
the festival is fitting as not only is it where the Mahindra Group is
headquartered, but also because it’s a truly international city. The
festival promises to make an instant connect with the citizens of Mumbai
– who experience exaggerated amounts of struggle, strife and success
and take all this on with a smile on their face and a song on their
lips!

The tickets to the Mahindra Blues Festival will be
available shortly at www.bookmyshow.com, Rhythm House and there is also a
home delivery service (39895050). More information regarding the
festival is available on www.mahindrablues.com. This festival is
organized by Oranjuice Entertainment.

About the Mahindra Group

Mahindra
embarked on its journey in 1945 by assembling the Willys Jeep in India
and is now a US $7.1 billion Indian multinational. It employs over 1,
00, 000 people across the globe and enjoys a leadership position in
utility vehicles, tractors and information technology, with a
significant and growing presence in financial services, aerospace,
after-market, real estate, hospitality, logistics. The Mahindra Group
today is an embodiment of global excellence and enjoys a strong
corporate brand image.

Mahindra is the only Indian company among
the top tractor brands in the world. It is today a full-range player
with a presence in almost every segment of the automobile industry, from
two-wheelers to UVs, SUVs and CVs. Mahindra has acquired a majority
stake in REVA Electric Car Co Ltd. (now called Mahindra REVA),
strengthening its position in the Electric Vehicles domain.

The
Mahindra Group expanded its IT portfolio when Tech Mahindra acquired
Satyam Computer Services, now known as Mahindra Satyam.

Its
flagship company Mahindra & Mahindra Limited has recently earned the
distinction of being the only Indian automobile manufacturer to feature
in the top 10 list of the Carbon Disclosure Leadership Index in India, –
2010, created by the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP). CDP is an
independent not-for-profit organization holding the largest database of
primary corporate climate change information in the world.