ChantLanta, Atlanta’s homegrown kirtan festival, will hold its 13th and final edition this month. Kirtan can be described as a devotional call-and-response chanting practice, rooted in a Hindu devotional tradition, that combines sacred mantras, rhythmic music, and communal singing to invoke spiritual connection.
Since its inception, ChantLanta has helped popularize kirtan in Atlanta as local and traveling artists found growing interest among yoga studios. But with ChantLanta’s impending conclusion, one might wonder about its future in the ATL. As it turns out, a new generation of kirtan artists is hitting the yoga studios while a kirtan mainstay since the 70s—somewhat under the radar—continues stronger than ever.
Kirtan’s Roots
The roots of kirtan come from Vedic scriptures, a collection of ancient Hindu texts originating around 2,500 to 3,500 years ago. To the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), located on E. Ponce de Leon in Atlanta, kirtan is a powerful way to pray to Krishna, the Supreme God in the ISKCON tradition. ISKCON member Kartik Kripa Bhimsen says the world entered the current age, the Kali Yuga, roughly 5,000 years ago. “In each age, there is a different suggested way to worship God and to make spiritual advancement,” he says. “In this age of Kali Yuga, kirtan is the number one way worship should be done. Specifically, [we] practice kirtan by chanting the Hare Krishna mahamantra.”
ChantLanta Comes to Life
When ChantLanta founder Ian Boccio moved from Philadelphia to Atlanta in 2007, he discovered the few existing kirtan communities in the area were isolated. “It was probably 2009 that I found the right group of people to start a band,” Boccio says. “There were four of us musicians, and we started traveling around the metro Atlanta area and offering kirtan.”
The band, Blue Spirit Wheel, traveled to kirtan festivals and yoga studios to perform. After attending an ecstatic chant festival in New York, Boccio had the idea to start a chant festival at home, bringing ChantLanta to life. “I wanted to create something that was going to be a big public spectacle,” Boccio says. “We were going to try really hard to promote this thing all over metro Atlanta, then on top of it, we made it a free event.”
Boccio and his team convinced local businesses to pay for advertising space to cover the basic festival costs. Staff and musicians worked as volunteers, and attendees could choose to offer a donation. By keeping the costs low, Boccio could donate all of ChantLanta’s profits to local charities and charities in India. “The idea was just to increase public awareness of what we were doing, what the benefits of chanting are and how much fun it was going to be,” Boccio says.
ChantLanta was successful from the start in 2010. Boccio felt the festival boosted the understanding of kirtan and inspired many people to create music. ChantLanta took a break in 2021 and 2022 due to the pandemic and wasn’t brought back until September 2023, even though it was usually held in the spring. COVID had thrown the festival off-schedule, and with little time to prepare for a 2024 festival, Boccio decided it would be best to wait until March 2025 to produce the next one.
Kirtan for Everyone
Like yoga and meditation, one does not need to practice any type of Hinduism to practice kirtan. Kirtan can be a tool for achieving enlightenment and is available to anyone. “These are just good things for human beings to do,” says Boccio. “Chanting is good for human beings; yoga is good for human beings. It’s not just for Hindus.”
Modern kirtan artist Radha Rose says kirtan “is an ecstatic way to pray with the heart and voice.” Rose says she sings to the divine feminine and masculine within her heart, restoring her to unconditional love. “It is a wonderful way to connect with others by raising your voice with love and devotion. There is an ecstatic bliss that you experience.”
Rose and kirtan artist Douglas Johnson have led several kirtan events at Aum Studio for Wellness in Alpharetta. Aum Studio’s founder, Yuliya Stepanov, says yoga studios offer a non-religious, open-minded environment where people can explore different practices and belief systems.
“I believe kirtan has this ability to give us bliss and inner joy,” says Stepanov. “I strongly believe the studio is here for this purpose—so we can use our body to create experiences without any substances.” Many people are unfamiliar with the practice, but when they try kirtan, they end up loving it, says Stepanov. In fact, the studio’s first kirtan event was a sold-out success.
“The feedback is overwhelmingly positive,” Stepanov says. “Attendees often share how transformative and uplifting the experience is.”
Rose leads kirtan in yoga studios, retreats and festivals with her husband, Josh Klein. “I like to incorporate melodies I hear from maybe more traditional kirtan leaders. I’ll take a little piece of their melody, and then I will arrange it in a new way. That’s how we honor the traditional style in our own unique context.”
ChantLanta’s Final Round
After organizing 13 festivals, Boccio and his team will close out ChantLanta with one final weekend, March 14 and 15. Both Boccio and ChantLanta co-founder Karen Dorfman have been on the planning committee since 2010. Taking nine to ten months to plan a festival is no easy feat, says Boccio. “It’s a lot of work. I feel really awesome about how much money we have raised for charity over the years, but I just do not have the energy to keep doing it.” And no one has stepped up to take over the task. “We hoped for more young folks to come forward and want to help put this thing together,” he says. If anyone comes forward to carry on the joyful tradition, the team would be supportive.
Kirtan’s Future in Atlanta
Boccio noted that kirtan’s popularity swelled from 2010 through 2016 but began to fade after that, and he hasn’t seen interest in it pick up since the pandemic. “There was a point in time where kirtan was really popular and a lot of people were flocking to it,” he says. Then, “people moved on to do other things. The people who were dedicated to it stuck with it.”
But while ChantLanta will host its final festival in March, Rose believes another group will step up. The Facebook group Chant Southeast, for example, promotes kirtan for the Atlanta community. “I am hoping one day when we have the time and energy,” Rose says, “we can gather a team together to continue this tradition in a new, fresh way.”
Rose will co-lead Chant for Love, a mantra meditation and forest therapy retreat, from March 28 through 30. The retreat will be led by Rose, Klein and Bala Yancey through Just Love Forest, a nature preserve in Lyerly, Georgia.
Stepanov, too, believes kirtan is on the rise in Atlanta’s spiritual community and will become more popular as people continue to discover it. Aum Studio for Wellness hosts frequent kirtan events and plans to release educational kirtan YouTube videos. “I hope to see kirtan continue to grow and expand, becoming as popular as other practices, like breathwork and sound healing,” Stepanov says. “Its potential to uplift and transform is immense, and I believe it could become a cornerstone of Atlanta’s wellness and spiritual communities.”
ISKCON’s Steadfast Presence
Vedaji
(Photo courtesy:
Mindful Seva Institute)
In the meantime, ISKCON continues to produce kirtan festivals in Atlanta focused on Hindu tradition and serving God. The Atlanta ISKCON temple was founded in 1972, and its first kirtan festival was held in June of that year for the Panihati Festival, which is still going on today. The festival kicks off with a parade through parts of downtown Atlanta. Music starts at noon on the front lawn of the ISKCON temple and goes into the night. The festival has seen much popularity with kirtan and attendees arriving from all over the world, with attendance soaring into the thousands. To make the event as accessible as possible, both admission and the food are free.
In 1994, Vedaji, the co-president of the Atlanta ISKCON temple, helped expand the festival’s presence from just one annual festival to four. “Our goal is to have a kirtan festival every day, chanting and dancing. If you want to remain in connection with God, you must sing and dance,” he says. “I feel it is my mission in the world to bring kirtan to yoga studios and to travel around the world spreading the word that singing and dancing is a method of connecting to God.”
In addition to the Panihati Festival, which takes place in August or September, the Radhastami Festival celebrates the birth of the Goddess Radha and attracts about 1,500 attendees. The Janmashtami Festival is usually the largest event, with 2,000 to 3,000 attendees, celebrating Krishna’s birthday two weeks later. In December, the Kirtan Festival is held for three days and enjoys about 2,000 attendees.
The Atlanta ISKCON temple also offers kirtan every Thursday evening and provides a free vegan meal. And while centered around Hindu tradition, ISKON is open to all. “We are not here to discriminate against anyone,” says Bhimsen. “It is more that, hey, you have a question? We 100% have an answer for you.” ❧
An Atlanta native, Camille Lueder has a B.A. in Journalism from Berry College. Her passion for travel has led her to work seasonal jobs, including one on a trail crew in Colorado and another at a farm in Hawaii.
