The Pretext For The Music Festival – NH7 Weekender

Having worked with AIB before, the goodwill of the indie music scene through OML wasn’t an overstatement to me. Consequently, as the dates for the 8th edition of the NH7 Weekender were announced, it couldn’t stay away from my conscious mind. Within days of its announcements, my friends and I booked our tickets to the happiest music festival.

The lineup of the multi-city music festival was the next big thing we waited for.

While Steve Vai – the Guitar Virtuoso going to headline the event, what caught our attention even further was the addition of the American pop band and Indie sensation – Cigarettes After Sex to the lineup. Other global artists included – punk rock icon Marky Ramone, metal legends Textures and The Dillinger Escape Plan. Within hours of the lineup release, NH7 Weekender became the most anticipated festival. Amongst the one-day ‘Weekender Express’ events and three-day festivals in Shillong & Pune, we counted our days for the Pune edition.

Thank God it’s Friday – 8th December

Day 2 Lineup:

Train tickets for 80 bucks and a free stay at a friend’s place we couldn’t get any luckier. The venue, Mahalakshmi Lawns. though on the other end of Pune city, didn’t pose a problem considering its spacious multi-stage arenas which made enough room for thousands of people. Five stages namely, Bacardi Main Arena (for headliners), Bacardi House Party, Dewars, Insider The Other Stage & Breezer Vivid (for standups). The day started with some new talents namely, Zokova, Aditi Ramesh, Aarya, May Island & Kraken.

However, it was inclined towards the metal fans. A heart pumping performance by Dillinge Escape Plan and Textures performing their last ever show made the day memorable. A mention of Prateek Kuhad by Ankur Tewari in his performance with the Ghalat Family made the audience sing along ‘Dil Beparwah’ to its best possible ability! For a lighter laugh, the Breezer Vivid stage witnessed a few comedians like Kunal Rao, Sumukhi Suresh and a few more.

The Camp Tinder base in the food area also attracted a huge crowd. With people sitting with cushions around a bonfire with artists performing a cosy gig, made the place a lovely affair to be in. Google Pixel 2 also had a fun setup with neon swings and charging points.

Saturday Saturday – 9th December

Day 2 Lineup:

More intensive than the first, the day was all about the guitar geeks. Beginning with Bad Pop, Mojo Jo Jo & Easy Wanderlings simultaneously on different stages, it became a difficult decision to choose. Parallel enough, the comic lineup included Rohan Joshi, Kanan Gill, Naveen Richard amongst others for a hilarious round. The evening progressed to some soul-full music by Ali Saffudin, who ended his performance with a line addressing to Indian Ocean saying “if it wasn’t for the song Bande, he would have never kept down the guitar” and thus, handing over the control from The Other Stage to the Indian Ocean on The Dewar’s Stage. Later on the same stage, Ram Sampath and Sona Mahapatra rocked the audience with their Bollywood selects. DK Bose has been performed twice, the crowd clearly crossed all its limits of mad dancing. After The Local Train and The Blackstrat Blue All-Stars in the Bacardi Main Arena, the thrill took a different turn with Steve Vai’s performance. Goosebumps as he played the guitar with his tongue at the end of his set!

The festival also saw the presence of a host of independent photographers and videographers searching for their subjects. The art installations were right there to be captured and posed with.

Art Installations:

Sunday Fun day – 10th December

Day 3 Lineup:

I am not even kidding when I say, the third and last day of the festival felt like the final year of college. Mame Khan beginning the day with his Rajasthani Folk tracks while Indigo Children playing at the same time, made it a tough call to decide again. While Vir Das’s Alien Chutney had its fair share of the audience, comedians like Biswa Kalyan Rath, Tanmay Bhatt, Kunal Kamra also received house full response of laughter.

Progressing Raghu Dixit on the Dewar’s stage as he taught the audience the lyrics to his songs, ‘Hey Bhagwan’ witnessed a few teardrops too. Cigarettes After Sex nonetheless gauged a huge crowd, breaking the stereotype of ‘only pillow songs.’ The song ‘Affection’ couldn’t stop the front rows from singing along. If you think, this was it, wait! Prateek Kuhad took over the Bacardi House Party stage as couples lost their senses to their hearts with his romantic tracks.

If you ever attend his gigs to listen to the song, ‘Raat Raazi’ forget it, because the audience will sing it for you! And all’s well that ends with a legend much known to all of us – Vishal Dadlani with his band Pentagram performing almost after three years. The band with tracks like ‘Tomorrow is decided’ is clearly an inspiration to all the bands that exist prominently today. A heartfelt message by Vishal tried convincing the audience to have a voice and to never shut up for what is rightly theirs. ‘You need to voice out!’

If you missed this, well, yes it is worth regretting!

But, wait! The last Weekender Express 2017 event is scheduled in Goa for the 23rd of December. Better luck now :p