Mumbai LGBTQ community to celebrate pride month in January

The LGBTQ community will be celebrating the pride month come January, and a 'Pride Concert' will be held in Mumbai this year to celebrate the occasion. This year, the Rainbow Voices Mumbai, a LGBTQ choir group from the city, has invited LGBTQ choir groups from across the World to perform at the event. The last day for accepting applications is November 30 and individuals from eight countries have already applied. 

The theme of the concert is 'Mile Sur Mera Tumhara', based on a popular Hindi song of the 1980s which promotes unity in diversity.

In October, the invitations via LGBTQ friendly organisations were sent out to different choir groups throughout the world. 

"We have received applications from UK, USA, France, Singapore, and other countries. We are hoping to have at least a dozen individual members from all over the World for the event that will be held on January 27 at G5A, in Kamala Mill Compound," said Ashish Pandya, the spokesperson for Rainbow Voices Mumbai. 

The tickets will be priced between Rs 300-500 and to raise funds for the organising of the event, the group has posted an appeal online too.

"This year we have invited individual members from LGBT choirs across the world to join us in our 2018 concert - 'Mile Sur Mera Tumhara/Let our Voices Unite'. Our Goal for this performance is to create awareness about the issues faced by the LGBT community to find its identity in Modern India. With the transformative power of music we wish to imagine a future free of discrimination, oppression, ignorance and prejudice, and to encourage compassion and activism," said Pandya.

In January 2017, a pride concert was held at NCPA, which was attended by London's Pink Singers, one of the longest LGBTQ choir group in Europe. Later, the Rainbow Voices Mumbai even did a concert with them and performed in London pride.