Raghu Dixit Kicks Off UK Tour At Glastonbury Festival

India’s biggest folk export in recent times, The Raghu Dixit Project, began a long string of UK dates with a trio of appearances at Glastonbury, held recently on June 22-26. Aside from performances at the relatively minor Croissant Neuf and Leftfield, Dixit played a set at the John Peel Stage. As reported previously, this was by far the biggest stage that an Indian indie act had ever played at the Pilton extravaganza. The erstwhile ‘New Bands Tent’ has long held the reputation for being the stage for bands that are on the verge of breaking out, and on this occasion, TRDP was billed alongside acts like OK Go, The Streets, The Joy Formidable and Robyn. Dixit also made a pit-stop at the BBC Studios during the festival, where he sang ‘No Man Will Ever Love You’ live to a BBC 2 audience of over 2 million.

As with his performances on Jools Holland last year, the huge boost in exposure propelled Dixit’s album and single to the #1 spot in the U.K. iTunes World Music Charts. The Glasto performances also netted the Bangalore singer-songwriter some more critical acclaim in the British press. On The Guardian liveblog, Caspar Lewellyn Smith called Dixit “this year’s world music breakout star.” In The Independent, Nick Hasted also had some nice things to say about Dixit, claiming that the “liberated energy of Dixit’s performance was grasped by the hundred or so passing festival-goers who paused to listen and soon found themselves leaping and dancing with the irrepressible singer.”

The Raghu Dixit Project goes on to play over a dozen U.K. dates on the summer festival circuit, including a headliner slot at Rhythms of The World in Hertfordshire on July 09, and a gig at Lattitude in Suffolk on July 16, where the singer will be presented with his Songlines Award for ‘Best Newcomer’.

Gaurav Vaz, manager/bassist of The Raghu Dixit Project, sent us these photos from Glastonbury.

Raghu Dixit of The Raghu Dixit Project @ John Peel Stage, Glastonbury

Glastonbury Festival 2011

Raghu Dixit of The Raghu Dixit Project @ Leftfield, Glastonbury

Glastonbury Festival 2011

UPDATE: The Raghu Dixit Project’s live performance on BBC 2 is now available on YouTube. Accompanied only by a guitar, a violin and a cathedral’s worth of reverb, watch Dixit sing ‘No Man Will Ever Love You’ below.