“Today, India is an interesting juxtaposition and my music is reflective of that. Though we perform folk poetry and folk styles of singing, we present it in a global form with rock guitars and drums,” says Raghu Dixit. The Bengaluru-based singer and composer will be the only Indian artiste performing at EtoEtno, a festival of global folk and ethno-fusion styles, in Russia this weekend.According to Raghu, the invite to EtoEtno was due to the success of the Silk Road Festival of Modern Tradition conceptualised by Slobodan Trkulja, a musician from Serbia, and founder of the band Slobodan Trkulja & Balkanopolis.The second edition of the Silk Road Festival which took place in March this year had musicians from China, Russia, India, Bulgaria, Syria, Uzbekistan, and other nations performing. “Each one sang their own compositions, two or three songs in their regional languages. The show celebrated the diversity of the world’s states and cultures coming together and the artistic director of Russia’s EtoEtno festival wanted a similar lineup of musicians to perform in their country.”“Slobodan and I have been friends for over a decade now and ever since we met at theRainforest World Music Festival in Malaysia, we’ve been wanting to work together,” says Raghu, adding he will perform at the EtoEtno festival solo, before heading to London where he will perform at Southbank Centre with his band.Slobodan, who is a singer, multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer, believes the purpose of the Silk Road Festival is, “to remind ourselves how beautiful the world is”. “How infinitely different we all are and yet, essentially the same humans that carry the spark of the divine within,” he says, speaking from his home in Serbia.His reasons for structuring the festival on diversity is two-fold, Slobodan continues. “Combining different traditions, songs and styles from distant places is what Silk Road is about. Secondly, while wars are raging everywhere, we fight for beauty through music. We’ve forgotten our purpose on earth — we fight for beauty because beauty will save the world.”