NH& Weekender festival: 30
November – 1 December
Up till now I had experienced the
sounds and music of India, and frankly, I was disappointed. The noise that comes from the temples sounds
like children who have picked up instruments for the first time, and the monks
best do a little bit more practising (it’s not like they doing much else now),
because there is no tune or melody, just banging and clanging.
It was horrifying that in a
country so vast and diverse, its music was so monotonous, and well,
rubbish. Turns out though, I was just
looking in the wrong place. Who would
have thought that discovering the sound and soul of the Indian music movement
did not lie in the Punjabi-blasting public busses, or the painfully
ear-throbbing screeching pop, love songs.
From the moment I knew I was
spending a long time in India, I looked up what music festivals were going on,
and it just seemed like I would be missing all of them – scheduling
conflicts. I had made a friend though,
who was organising (what he said) was one of the biggest annual music events,
and he said he would hook me up.
As my trip wound on, and I had
not attended any others, my faith was more and more, placed into this one man’s
hands. As the date came nearer, and I
still did not have a ticket (as promised), I resigned my fate to the
stars. It got down to days before and I,
on his word, had booked a flight up to Pune and accommodation, yet no ticket
was forthcoming. I arrived at my hostel
the night before the festival was supposed to start, and my faith was rewarded
with a ping in my inbox, and a 3-day pass!
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| Home base for the next few days. Busy Bee Hostel, Pune |
Whohoo. Entrance secured, I still had no idea what
the festival was about, the line-up, or any festival crew – all major parts of
a successful festival recipe.
The crew was the easy part. There are only a handful of hostels in Pune,
and I figured anyone staying in the traditionally non-touristy town over this
weekend would inevitably be going to the festival.
Busy bee hostel did not disappoint, and I immediately
fell in with three Indian guys, who had traveled from different parts of the
country to attend. This was good confirmation that,
if people were willing to mission so far, this should be worth attending. For protection of their real identities, I
will give them pseudonyms for the rest of the story (and yes, I do remember their
actual names - asses).
Willey was a strange cat, but I
was only to find out actually how strange, as the weekend progressed. Quite a bit older than all of us, he was the
baller of the group and the owner of businesses (he said) making and exporting clothing
(I asked no further questions). A
chain-smoker, he always wanted to ensure that everyone had a drink in their
hand. His story was that he had come Pune (and checked into
a hostel?) for work, and seemingly stumbled onto the fact that there was a
music festival happening. No problem for Willey, who accordingly
did not have a ticket at the festival. He assured us that it was ok. He would just pick up one at the gate. The
fact that the price of the tickets were at their absolute highest, did not
bother him in the slightest. Classic Willey.
Jay was only 21, and his
youthfulness gave him energy and vigour. The was the super-fan of the group. He had researched the line-up extensively and mapped out a plan on how
to see as many of the artists that he wanted to see as possible. He was literally jumping out of his seat when
talking about some of the bands he wanted to see. Youth and bouncy energy made Jay an
inquisitive creature, and he was always the first to wander off, and would
somehow find his way back to us as the night came to a close, at the exit gates of the festival, or when we
arrived back at the hostel.
Maurice was quiet, but
cooool. About the same age as me, he was
the one to invite me into the motley crew that had been assembled at Busy Bee
hostel, as we bonded over a bottle of 49% agave (not quite) tequila. Difficult to fluster, and a man of few words,
he seemed to be the common bond between all of us – having the aura around him
to attract everyone into one group.
Maurice though always has a hustle, and he would slip away after the
festival closed each night (around 11), to meet some ‘friends’. There was no invite to join his afterparty, and that he
did not join us on the third day, meant that Maurice’s ‘friends’, was actually
one ‘friend’ that had obviously fallen into his allure too.
She obviously gave him just a little more of
what he was looking for, than we could offer.
At least, as the festival
started, we were a group. As we entered
the festival, I was immediately impressed by the layout of the place. Having come into this with absolutely no
expectations, I was blown away by the dynamic and colourful decorations and installations. There were 4 stages, ample space, lots of
see, do, and eat and most impressively (particularly in India) - order. Things worked, well. Queues were made, and followed. There was security, there was information
abound. It was a festival that would not
be out of place with any other in the world.
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| You know it is going to be a great festival if they have a ferris wheel |
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| Art insalations and no crowds. Really an Indian festival? |
As we headed to the first bar,
Willey disappeared while we were still trying to work out the token/menu/drink
system, and reappeared with enough tokens to cover all three of us the whole day.
Astonished, we asked Willey what was up? “It’s ok”, he said. “It is for everyone, let’s go get a
drink”. Well, that’s kind we thought,
and it would be rude not to take the offer.
We’ll get the next round, we all thought.
 |
| A cool looking bar, for a cool-looking festival. |
Happy hour lasted until 6pm, and Happy
hour was 2-for-1 specials. Bacardi
showed up big time, and by 6pm we had taken full advantage of the special and
Willey’s tokens were all but finished. Well oiled we had (obviously)
lost wandering Jay to the big crowds, bright lights, and generally other flashy things. Our group was down to 3, but we did not
really realise, as we were all enjoying every band playing. I could not believe that, literally, every
band that played, from the moment we walked in, were just awesome. I wished that I had not had to wait almost 8
months to experience the diversity of talent and excellent music that India had
to offer.
 |
| Getting stuck into Day 1 |
After an awesome day, Day 1 ended
with us not finding Jay, and Maurice telling us he would be partying on with
his “friends” - what would really be the normal order for the new few days. With the foresight of having two more
days to go, I was happy to call it a night, and by now, Willey’s confident
facade had become a tail that I could not shake. He was so happy to have met us (read me), had
such a good time with everybody (read me), and did not know why everyone had
left (read him).
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| Midival Punditz on stage, Deep into Day 1 |
Anyway, the only downside of the
festival was getting out. Everything
else worked so well, but thousands of people exiting at the same time, and walking out of the festival grounds, India became India again, and traffic was hell.
Vehicles, taxis and tuk tuks were driving on the pavement and in the
opposite lane, so I suggested we walk a little to get out of the chaos.
Willey’s age, and a day full of
festival-ing though had taken its toll on him, and he was in no shape to walk
more than 500m. He summonsed a taxi,
after about 45min of him trying, and paid an exorbitant rate to go the 6km to
our hostel. I protested, he said not to
worry – he had this. I did not object. Classic Willey.
Day 2 went much like Day 1,
except Willey did not have a ticket (they were all sold out at the gate), but he nevertheless
gave us a sheet of tokens, which he had bought again, to use anyway. Classic Willey.
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| Walking into the festival, ready for Day 2 |
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| Oh, this is a cool part of the festival, I did not know existed until the second day |
We though all split up after a few Happy Hour
specials, for our own independent exploring, and things tended to get a little
out of hand. How out of hand? Well I do remember having a 45 minute rant
about how inept a pizza food stall was at making pizza, and should have a
better operations plan if they were going to show their face at a festival.
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| This was the pizza place - see the stress on this lady's face. Poor planning. Tsk Tsk. |
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| For some reason, I was making a lot more friends on Day 2 :) #howsthatbeard |
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| Kokoroko - Afrobeat - Vibes! |
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| Indo-afro-fusion. Day 2 going right - Boombay Djemebe Foolas |
I did not realise at first how wild Day 2 was, until the end of Day 3, when people came up to me and greeted me (like we had
had a 45 minute conversation), and another
mentioned that he owed me some money (at least I did not owe them 😊). Still, the music was good, and I for those
who know me well, was sure to take lots of pictures and videos to help jog
that memory that can get a little foggy at times. Classic Ryan.
Day 3 had one surprise that
shaped the day. When we were about to
leave the hostel, Willey showed up, with a smile, and a ticket in hand. He decided to do one more day, on account of
the good time he had on the first. He
was so happy to spend the whole day together with me, and would make sure he
spent the whole day together with me (and I am not paraphrasing here). Maurice had, by now, abandoned the quartet,
and Jay was way too excited about experiencing as much as he could on the last
day, that we basically lost him as soon as he woke up that morning.
Our trio was down to two, but I
was in no mood by Day 3 of well jolled festival though to be polite, and made
it my mission to lose Willey in the crowd.
This did take some doing though. I
must say, he is a very good stalker.
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| Sunset sessions at the electric stage |
All in all though, I had an
amazing time. I was so grateful to my
friend for getting me a ticket, and so thankful that I got to experience what
level of music India is operating on. Guess one has just got to know where to look ti find the gems. All types of groups and genres. Established, as well as up and coming. The festival took place in such a good
spirit, I met (more than I can remember 😊) so many nice people, and the music and
level of professionalism of the festival blew me away. Anyone want to go next year?
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| Ah festivals = love. Thanks, NH7 |
By the way, some of my highlights -
check them out - if you looking for some new lockdown music:
- Earthgang – Shorthand - Submarine in Space - Kokoroko - Boombay Djembe Folas
- Garden City Movement - Ramya Pothuri - Sanddunes
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