Sankat Mochan Music Festival is a festival which is celebrated with great zeal. This festival is mainly celebrated in Sankat Mochan Hanuman temple, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. This festival attracts acclaimed classical musicians and dancers to perform in the festival from all over India. The local people, pundits, and tourists come in tandem to highlight the musical event held from dawn till dusk, as part of Hanuman Jayanti i.e. birthday of Lord Hanuman. The participatory dance during the event shows the evidence of raw energy in this place and the sights of monkeys looting fruits creates a euphoric pleasure which can only happen in Banaras.
Sankat Mochan is celebrated in Banaras’s most popular temple to Hanuman. The entry to this event is free. There are no specific VIP areas. People come and go and do whatever one wish to do. The stage which will be created on the verandah that faces Hanuman in his sanctum is not closed that the public crowds the courtyard right to the base of the stage, and fans, friends and students sit on the stage. This festival demonstrates the continued power of bhakti for many Indians.
In a festival like Sankat Mochan Music Festival in which artists perform for free, show their devotion to Hanuman as a cause for doing so. In this ordinary people turn up in the hundreds and listen to classical music. This yearly celebration holds a different place in the hearts of the crowds who visit it every year and appreciate the peaceful music that is played as it touches their hearts and souls. This 6-day long celebration is a tribute and a devotion to Lord Hanuman and the artists feel respected to be a part of this magnificent felicitation.