Delhi gears up for South Asian Bands festival
MUMBAI: Known as one of the most popular music fests for presenting bands across Asia, The South Asian Bands Festival is back this year with a strong line-up. The three day fest begins from 11 December in Delhi at the Purana Qila and will feature 15 popular rock bands from across nine countries in the sub-continent.
Now in its third edition, the festival will showcase bands from India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh,Myanmar, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. Bands like Strings (Pakistan), Raghu Dixit Project (Bangalore), Shankar, Ehsaan and Loy (Mumbai) and Who's Your Daddy (Bhutan) have already been on this stage before in the last two editions. The participating debut rock bands are Pentagram (Mumbai), Avial (Trivandrum), Half Step Down (Delhi), Faridkot (Delhi), Kabul Dreams (Afghanistan), Nagarbaul and James (Bangladesh), Afflatus (Shillong), Fa'thu and The Early Birds (Maldives), Emperor (Myanmar), Paranoid Earthling (Sri Lanka) and 1974 AD (Nepal).
Seher spokesperson Manjot Chawla says, We believe that Culture and music binds people of different faith religion and race and when people from different regions come on a single platform and perform – it binds people together. This Festival aims to attract the youth of Delhi in very large numbers....
South Asian Bands Festival was first held in 2007 when India was the chair of SAARC – the festival was organized by SEHER in collaboration with the Ministry of External Affairs. With the enormous success of the �SAARC Bands Festival' the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) in 2007 decided to make it into an annual feature. The festival has attracted over 30,000 people every time it was held.
Delhi based Hit 95 FM has also exclusively tied up with the fest, Hit 95 FM has always given Delhi, differentiated and unique music offerings creating diversity in International music. We are happy to partner Seher in their initiative on The south asian bands festival – the biggest music festival for our listeners," says Hit 95 FM station manager Shyam Kumar Singh.
