Livewire weekend

Starting tomorrow,the multi-genre festival will look beyond live performances to include elements such as art installations,food and even a tattoo parlour. Vijay Nair,CEO of the organiser Only Much Louder,says,“India has never seen a festival of this scale before. Usually people go and watch performances for a few hours. Here,the idea is to get people to come and spend an entire weekend,soaking in music,art,food.” Pune,he says,is perfect for the festival’s debut. “The crowd here is always great,plus it has enough space to give us the kind of performance venue we needed.”

The artistes include some of the country’s most prominent acts such as Indian Ocean,Parikrama,Zero,Junkyard Groove,Scribe,The Raghu Dixit Project,Midival Punditz,Bhayanak Maut and Jalebee Cartel. Also present will be some international names such as Magic Numbers and the Asian Dub Foundation. There will be three different performing stages — The Bacardi Black Arena which will feature the rock and metal acts,The Eristoff Wolves Den for electronic artistes and The Dewarists stage to cater to the folk and fusion scene.

Perhaps one of the most interesting aspects is the inclusion of art,Exhibit NH7. Sameer Kulavoor of Bombay Duck Designs will be working along with Lokesh Karekar and Kunal Bele to create live art at the festival. Kulavoor explains,“Music is intimately connected with design and art. When you think of bands such as Led Zeppelin or The Beatles,certain kind of art comes to mind. So we thought the includsion of art would complete the experience.”