Midnight Notes Before Storm Festival

ImageSource: www.stormfestivalindia.com

The thought of travelling to a destination away from the madness of the city is exciting. A chance to get away from the everyday rut of work you do to earn your living is exhilarating. The idea of disappearing in the darkness of the night only to find oneself miles away in the woods in company of some electrifying music is awe-inspiring.

Well sure it’s just the kind of craving I have always sensed from within. And now comes a time I get to live this little dream of mine. I’m just four hours away from hitting the road to Coorg, the picturesque Coffee plantation district of Karnataka. The destination is Napoklu a little known hamlet nestled 14.5 km from Main Town Madikeri. When the sunrises tomorrow I will be setting foot on Storm Fields, call it the Woodstock of India, the Storm Festival. It’s going to be my first ever campout music festival.

2 days of Music, 4 Stages, 40 Indian and International Acts, thousands of music lovers & One Destination that pretty much sums up Storm festival. The 2013 edition has 4 stages and each has a unique name, guess it’s got enough fodder for any music lover to be spoilt for choices.

The Fusion stage is called Coffee. It’s this genre that I believe is fast catching up with Indian youth. This is undoubtedly my favourite genre of music at this festival. Some of the biggest names of Indian music will be setting the stage ablaze with their sizzling performances, of that I’m sure. The bands that will be playing this season are Indian Ocean with none other than Shankar Mahadevan joining them on this tour, Karsh Kale Collective, Raghu Dixit, Papon And The East India Company, Swarathma, Devika Chawla, Advaita, Agam, Anthony Dasan Yen Party, Lagori, Coshish, Astitva and Agnya. My personal favourites in this line up apart from the legendary Indian Ocean and Raghu dixit are Agam and Lagori. These guys are young and their music is amazing.

The EDM Stage which is called “Spice” will host International artists namely Dash Berlin, Bobina, Michael woods and Dj Teri. There are host of Indian Electronica biggies viz Nikhil Chinapa, Pearl, Sanjay Dutta, Vachan Chinnappa, Tuhin Mehta, Anish Sood and few others also playing.  I am not much of a Electronica fan. But when in a mood find it quiet appealing.

The third stage is rather interesting it’s the Singer-Songwriter Stage and has been named Paddy. This stage has definitely stirred some curiosity in me. I would be looking forward to spending some quality time around this stage. Reasons for this is obvious, song writing is something which I can closely relate myself to, as a writer. It would be fantastic to watch some solo performances from this bunch of talented artists. The line up includes Michael Dias, Sidd Coutto, Solder, Vedanth, Alisha Pais, Anand Vija'ysimha,Siddharth Basru, Raman Mahadevan  and Jirka Mucha.

There is also a fourth stage called ‘Honey’ which is a Campsite Stage. This is where the unplugged jamming will begin post main stage performances, and will go on till late. Now the added advantage of having booked your tent in advance comes in handy, The Honey stage will be open only for campers.

Well now I guess it’s just over 2 hours before I hit the road. My gang of friends from work await for me and I will soon be joining them. The next 2 days is going to be all about music, love and peace. Hope to have an amazing time and hope to find new inspirations to keep myself rekindled everyday to live, write and smile.

- VJ Says ~ Cheers and Peace!