♦ A nine-day long Indo-Bangla Baul music festival began in Dhaka on 17 May 2024 to celebrate the 250th birth anniversary of the mystic saint and humanist bard Fakir Lalan Shah. The event is being organised by the cultural and research organisation Lalon Biswasangha working to popularise the work and promote research on Lalan Fakir. The High Commission of India and the Ministry of Cultural Affairs of Bangladesh are supporting the event.
♦ Fakir Lalon Shah is considered the most prominent figure of the Baul tradition of Bangladesh and India. Born in 1774 at Horishpur in the Jhenaidah district of modern Bangladesh. He inspired and influenced people like Rabindranath Tagore, Kazi Nazrul Islam and the American poet Allen Ginsberg among others.