Lucknow’s grand finale: A power-packed December of T20 cricket, music concerts, comedy and theatre

LUcknow is go under to boniface a serial of power-packed events to terminate the twelvemonth on a high note. International T20 matches, celebrated plays, ace musicians, stand-up comedians and literature sessions are all in store for the remainder of December. Here’s a peek at the line-up.SA vs India The fifth and final T20 cricket match between India and South Africa will be played at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Cricket Stadium on December 17. The 50,000-capacity stadium is set to host the international match, with teams scheduled for a practice session on Tuesday.Musical days aheadFrom silent disco and regional music to ghazals and rock bands, the next two weeks are packed with star performances. “Starting December 19, our silent disco arena will feature DJ Skipster with hip-hop, DJ Laapata with house-techno and DJ Dr Sangria with techno-afro music. Singer Anuv Jain, Nikhil Chinapa and the Euphoria band led by Dr. Palash Sen will perform at the musical arena at Janeshwar Mishra Park, which can house 3,000 people,” says Bhoopesh Nigam, founder of the Repertwahr Festival. At the same venue, during the Boho Festival starting December 27, live performances by singers Rabbi Shergill, Divine, Mame Khan and Paresh Pahuja will be held. Organiser Amitesh Ahuja says, “Besides them, at our Indian stage we have performances by singers Sanjeeta and Piyush Kapoor, bands Last Cigarette Theory, Naacheez, Ansh Thakur and Jatin Sharma, while the EDM stage will feature DJ Bullzeye, DJ Novna, Nida and DJ Santana.”Power-packed playsFour plays will be staged at Janeshwar Mishra Park from December 18. “Actor Pratik Gandhi’s solo act Mohan Ka Masala, Manav Kaul’s production Jo Dooba So Paar—a musical dastaangoi, Lillete Dubey’s English play Vodka & No Tonic, and Atul Kumar’s adult drama Ambaa will be performed in a heated, indoor makeshift theatre with a black box design and a wooden-elevated seating capacity of 750,” says event co-founder Priyanka Sarkar. Atul Satya Kaushik’s play Chakravyuh, starring Nitish Bharadwaj, will be staged at Indira Gandhi Pratisthan on Sunday at 7 pm. He plays Lord Krishna in the play. Lit-ComedyLegendary poet Waseem Barelvi will hold a session in the literature area at the Repertwahr Fest, while Himanshu Bajpai and Pragya Sharma will perform a new Dastaangoi.Sitarist Chandulal Karburgi, ghazal singer Deveshi Sahgal, Badal Sharma, the nirgun folk music group The Aahvaan Project, and singer-songwriters Justh and Ankur Tewari will also perform during the four-day Repertwahr Festival starting December 18.The stand-up comedians Aakash Gupta, Gaurav Gupta and Gurleen Pannu will also perform at the fest.