World Music Day: How ‘Tavern-behind-Trincas’ is giving India’s regional sounds a stage

In India’s ever-evolving cultural landscape, few establishments can claim to honour the past while carving out the future. Fewer still do so every single night, with the conviction that regional music deserves space in the mainstream; not as an annual celebration or nostalgic throwback, but as a living, breathing expression of who we are today.

At ‘Tavern-Behind-Trincas’ (TBT) in Kolkata, that mission is now unfolding in real-time. In a country of fleeting music moments, ‘Trincas’ is the only stage where regional sound is the headline act, night after night. Once a laundry room tucked inside the iconic ‘Trincas’ on Park Street, the Tavern has transformed into one of India’s most unique and consistent venues dedicated to regional music in a mainstream hospitality setting.

TBT is doing what few venues in the country have dared to do: programming regional music nightly, without reducing it to a novelty or heritage act. It proves that audiences - local and visiting - are hungry for authenticity, surprise and rootedness. On World Music Day, the cultural significance of such a space becomes even more poignant.