The second edition of the Paddy Fields Festival, which is India’s only complete folk and fusion festival, will be hosted at NESCO on 7 and 8 October. To know more about the festival, we at radioandmusic had a conversation with the NESCO sales and marketing head Anupama Bhalla. Excerpts of the interaction:

How did the first edition of the Paddy Fields festival come about?

NESCO is already big at B2B exhibitions so we thought let's move to the B2C space. There were two ways of doing this; one was by starting our own IP and the second one was by bringing in all external B2C events into the campus.  We got our first IP - Paddy Fields accepted. The reason for bringing this festival is that there is a lot of music related to Bollywood and there are lot of people who love fusion as well. But there was nothing much being  done about it. A bit does happen here and there in hotels and halls. So we thought of having a full festival that would be small at first and grow bigger later. Keeping that in mind we launched Paddy Fields . The kind of singers we brought in for the first season sang folk and fusion.  We thought of continuing on with the same trend as last year to make the property grow.  While Papon, Chaar Yaar or Nooran Sisters do sing folk and definitely perform in other functions as well. But until Paddy Fields, we did not have a pure concrete festival that one could recreate and make it bigger.

Who was behind the making of Paddy Fields Festival?

Big FM has been a supportive partner throughout. They really understood where we were coming from and they were happy to get involved with us. They are doing a 20 week program for us. Every Sunday between 6  to 7 they have a folk music show  by RJ Sidharth. It is centered on Paddy Fields, focusing and showcasing all the singers who have either performed or are going to perform at Paddy Fields. They talk about the festival, what is  it all about and the entire show is largely about folk and fusion numbers sung by those artists. They are supporting us and are our partners in this initiative.  The promotion of our actual event is also at Big FM.

What kind of expectations  do you have from the second edition?

The two days show will be in a much bigger hall this year, so we can fit a lot more people from the physical capacity point of view. It has really caught on; we already have people buying our tickets. In our first year it was letting people get to know that there was something called Paddy Fields and we had a reasonably fair attendance. This time without too much push, we’ve already started seeing people picking season tickets- we had a much larger sale on season tickets verses the day tickets. This means that people are interested in us and are eagerly awaiting  the lunch of our second edition and will be coming to the festival. A lot of people have also written to us, confirming  that they will be coming. The interest in the event is  picking up and hopefully we’ll have a larger attendance this year as we have a great lineup of singers and we are doing things a little differently by focusing on women. But at the end of the day it will all be about folk and fusion.

What is the idea behind bringing women to centre stage?

The idea behind calling it women centric is that last year we had a lineup of Papon, Chaar Yaar and others who were very popular. A lot of them have even sung for the movies and they have also done ghazals and other stuff as well but at the same time there are a lot of women singers out there with powerful voices and are very popular in their respective areas and regions and states, but people in Mumbai haven't heard them or about them. So we thought of an edition were we could get them all together. It’s time to expose those voices to the people here because they are great singers. We have picked up a lot of good singers and we reached out to them on the basis of their availability and our dates. That’s how we finally came up with great lineup. Some names are very popular - like Shubha Mudgal, Sona Mohpatra and others who are very well known in the region where they sing or perform in, and are known abroad as well. They will be sharing stories of their region through their songs. Last year Chaar Yaar spoke about the song, how it was created, why they tuned it in a particular way and what is it trying to say. Artists have their own way of presenting what they are talking about.

How different will this edition would be for the audience?

It won’t be different in terms of folk and fusion. The new thing about this edition is that we are trying to bring talented women together. It is difficult to find a place where women have performed in large numbers. Most shows have just a single woman performer. But this festival is all about bringing a lot of women together who are strong enough in their own life to add a new angle to the show. The show is for folk and fusion and we have picked up singers who are specialized in that genre. Having all women performing  will add a more interesting flavour to the festival. It will make one want to come and hear something different and also most of the singers have not been heard because they might not have performed in Mumbai before.

Who are the sponsors for the festival?

It is largely supported by NESCO to build the B2C segment inside the campus. We are starting all these IPs that will begin to showcase this venue as something where B2C events can happen. We have Big FM and HT partnering with us on this.

What are the safety measures that you are taking for the festival?

The festival will be happening at the NESCO campus which itself has its own security system. The venue is not an open ground; the show will be hosted inside an air conditioned hall where all those entering will have a wrist-band for entry. The audiences will be the people who have actually bought the tickets and have the band on them. This will help us to ensure that we have the right audience inside. The festival is purely for the love of music. We also have known faces who will be attending the festival, but not as guests.  In addition to this we will also have more security on  the days of event - right from the entrance onwards.

How will you be promoting the event?

We are looking at a 360 degree effort We are on radio through Big FM, on print  through HT,  on digital (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram) and on outdoor hoardings.

What are the other facilities provided for the audience during the festival?

Our campus has a capacity for parking 2,000 cars; there are two massive car parking lots inside campus so parking won’t be an issue for the people coming for the festival. Apart from this, there will be food and beverages stalls because the shows will  be 4-5 hours long and people can have snacks from the stalls. We will also be putting up screens in the food area so that people don’t miss out any part of the event.

How is Paddy Fields helping singers?

A lot of singers have performed and make new songs which then have become NESCO’s IP. We are also building the other side of it; one is the performance at the Paddy Fields and the other is that these song become IPs of NESCO. Folk and fusion pioneer Leslie Lewis has been helping us with this. He was there with us last year and has done about 10 songs for this year for us. We exclusively want to promote music on our campus which will attract many B2C events in our campus, be it music related, more music performances, or shows etc. Keeping that in view, Paddy Fields is something that we plan to continue on an annual basis.

What are your future plans?

We want Paddy Fields Festival not just in India but also outside India.