Do you remember when Scribe triggered off an impromptu onstage moshpit last year? Were you there when Jon McClure and MaticMouth from Reverend Sound System leapt into the crowd midway through a song without so much as missing a beat? How about the time sitar player extraordinaire Ravi Chary jammed onstage with Zero? If the answer to any of these questions is “yes”, chances are that you’ll already be planning your sojourn to Pune this November. If however, your reply is a no, accompanied by a look of utter bewilderment, you’ll want to pay attention.
The second edition of the Bacardi NH7 Weekender is set to take place in Pune from November 18 to 20 and is set to feature an astonishing 150 artistes playing across six stages. Festival co-organiser and CEO, Only Much Louder Vijay Nair says, “In terms of scale, we are roughly doubling the size of everything when compared with last year’s event.” Around 50 bands/artistes performed last year across five stages (three large and two smaller ones). In order to accommodate this far larger carnival, the venue, he explains had to be changed from Elysium and Raga Lawns (in Pune’s Koregaon Park.)
“We’re not really moving very far from the original site — just a few kilometres down the road to Magarpatta City, where we will have access to a 17-acre venue,” he adds. One imagines 17 acres would be able to host much larger audiences and wonders if the organisers are expecting a bigger turnout this year. “Last year, we believe there was a total footfall of around 6,300 to 6,700 people. This year we’re looking at building stages that have an 8,000 to 10,000 person capacity. However, even though we are doubling the scale of the festival, this doesn’t necessarily translate into larger audiences,” he warns sensibly.
But what about the music, this correspondent hears you holler. A few weeks ago, it was announced that eclectic songstress Imogen Heap would be headlining the Dewarists Stage this year. On Thursday night, at the festival’s launch party, Vijay made it known that house music duo Basement Jaxx would be playing a DJ Set in a headlining slot on the Eristoff Wolves Den stage. In addition to the usual suspects (Scribe, Bhayanak Maut, Demonic Resurrection, Pentagram and friends), the Raghu Dixit Project is strongly tipped to be launching parts of its new album during the event.
Word on the grapevine is that there are to be 10 international acts as part of the final lineup. “We’re still in the process of booking acts and artistes for the Weekender and should be announcing most of them by October,” says Vijay and adds, “The last thing we look for when booking bands and artistes is their popularity. The vibe the band/artiste brings to the festival is most important.” Basement Jaxx, he elaborates, is a group that he’s wanted to bring to India for the longest time. “They play some really great festival music that brings a lot to the overall vibe of the festival. Whereas conversely, a Scandinavian death metal band per se, would not make sense on such a bill,” he says.
While last year saw relatively low-key promotion leading up to the festival, the 2011 chapter of the Weekender will be preceded by a gruelling schedule of pre-event parties across the country, featuring most of the Indian acts that will feature at the festival. “Last year everything happened in a month’s time. This time around we began work six months in advance and everything’s a lot better planned,” the OML head honcho says and continues on a different note, “Last year, a lot of people opened their minds and checked out music that they probably don’t usually listen to. This year, I’d like to see more of that.”
Only time will tell on that one. And with less than three months to go, keep watching this space for more updates on the 2011 Bacardi NH7 Weekender. But to quickly return to the starting point of this piece, do you remember when Asian Dub Foundation came, saw and conquered Pune?