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| Naga Fest promotional poster/ banner |
Naga Fest 2012 in New Delhi was a free show which was held at Talkatora indoor stadium on Wednesday, Sept 19th. It was a night of celebration with amazing concerts, good food, talent displays, awesome speakers, cultural dance, prayer, worship and most importantly a rendezvous to strengthen the spirit of oneness, peace and brotherhood amongst the Naga’s. The objective of the event was not only “A CALL” to all the Naga’s and friends to come out and enjoy and be a part of the event and be blessed with good food and good music… you know.. but it was much beyond that, it was about unity, peace, bonding, presence, warmth, love, awareness and so on. By God’s will and prayer, as many as 3,000 people (approximately) showed up for the event leaving aside their daily chores and work at office and I was one of them. The Fest was a big success!
The fest was indeed a memorable one with some of the unique features it had facilated –
(1) Various bands, artists, singers and musicians of national and international repute performing under one roof. (2) Free bus services from North & South Delhi (for those attending the fest)
(3) Live streaming in the internet (for those who could not make it to the event) (4) More than 20 stalls displaying different talents in food, painting, art, shawls and other merchandises on sale. (5) A hugege indoor stadium with a sitting capacity more than 6,000 people (6) Wonderful ambience with bamboo plantations in the premises complimenting the fest. (7) Maintaining a ‘no smoking & no booze’ environment.
Please correct me if I am wrong, I read somewhere that the fest was organised by the USA-based Indigenous Foundation in association with the Naga Indigenous people. Nokho Nyekha and Cosmos Zimik being the key people to organize the “Naga Fest 2012” event ever in Delhi. The people behind the success of the ‘Naga Fest 2012’ include the organising committee, all the musicians, singers, performers, speakers, food vendors etc and most importantly the attendees, and last but not the least, all the people who had contributed their bit in some way or the other to make it a big hit despite of some shortfalls. All of them have significantly contributed to the success of the much awaited event that took place at Talkatora Stadium, New Delhi. More of such events should be organised in the capital city to showcase Naga culture, Naga food, it’s potentiality in music etc and bring about the awreness of the community in the cross-sections of the society; besides, such events provide an opportunity to all the Naga’s living in Delhi to come out and have fun and to feel a lil bit at home types, pray together and spread the message of oneness, brotherhood, love and peace to the entire world.
J
For those who missed the event: Let’s take an insight into the programmes that unfolded during the event…. the show was scheduled for 4.30 pm howerver it kick started at around 6.00 pm in the evening, the venue was big; as big as it could accommodate 5000 -6000 people approx, the ambience inside the stadium was pretty warm and the feeling of coming to the concert was great except for the small plastic slippery chairs where people easily slid down when they did not literally support their seating position with their feet…lol.. people were seen murmuring about this lil inconvenience. Anyway after the sound check and everything was over, the show was started with a dynamic speech and a humble prayer to the God by Cosmo Zimik and the crowd together. The hosts/anchors for the event were introduced – Azalika and Paul, they took the crowd through the entire show that night.
First band up on stage was REDOLENT from Tamenlong, Manipur, formed in July 2003, they are of the Rock genre. A very tight band whom I personally know about, the moment they opened up, they sounded like rockstars and the kind of music that Delhi always loved; fast, heavy and punchy. They played only two songs or rather they were directed to play only two songs, to my utter surprise, all the other bands had played more than 5 songs each, why was this partiallity then? Despite the fact that they sang two songs, they did put up a great show, the first song was a cover ‘Bullets’ of CREED and the last song was ‘From the shadows’, one of their unreleased originals. Redolent later complained about the poor sound system. They also performed at the Chaurang 2012 concert at Sur Tal stadium in Delhi on Friday 19th which I heard was really an amazing show, at least not to sing 2 songs…
J
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| REDOLENT in action, a band all the way from Tamenlong, Manipur |
Next up was a talented artist showcasing his beat-boxing skills, he really did an amazing job, only God knows from where he could produce 3-4 sounds at one go… he elevated the crowd with his amazing skills, this was followed by a band called “TOWERING FAITH” which is a Gospel/Metal band formed with a vision to reach out to the nations through music. Toweing Faith, in the truest sense lifted the audience, it enthralled the crowd with the kind of mucic they played, their singing style and performance. The vocalist of the band was able to connect with the audience and had the charm to invoke the audience to sing into his tune along, when he sang ‘hey-o’ and requested the audience to repeat after him (which I believe was a teaser), Good lord! The entire stadium was roaring with the ‘hey-o’ tune (for a fraction of moment, I thought that the stadium would fall down..lol) I am not too sure about the songs they sang but I too enjoyed with the rest of the crowd.
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| Towering Faith |
I believe, it was the convenor of the event, Nokho, who delivered a beautiful speech after Towering faith’s superb performance which was then followed by a Naga Maring tribal war dance from Manipur which created a lot of hype and attracted the photographers, camera-mens and
foreigners swirling around to capture the ethinic dance of the Naga Maring tribe.
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| The Naga Maring tribe war dance was performed on the ground (off-stage) |
The next artist to perform on stage was none other than
Guru Rewben Mashangva and his 7 year old son – Saka, Rewben Mashangva is a folk musician and singer from Manipur and is considered to be the father of the Naga Folk Blues and is popular for reviving musical tradition of the Tangkhul community. It would not be fair on my part to mention that he is my personal favourite and one of my primary reasons to attend this Fest. Anyway, when the hosts called on Guru Rewben Mashangva and Saka to take the stage, the fans at the top of their voice cheered him and gave him a great welcome even before he started to sing a song, guess what must have happened after singing a song, no wonder that is why he is the King of Naga Folk blues.
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| Rewben Mashangva and his 7 year old son, Saka. |
Guru Rewben Mashangva and Saka opened up with their original song “No more killings”, “Far away”,“Changkhom phillava” was a great super duper hit, while Rewben was strumming to the folk tune and his son singing and using the folk horn instrument, his fans were enthralled and repetitively kept applauding and cheering… in the midst of the show, Rewben was seen struggling with the poor sound system, he repeatedly kept asking the sound engineer either by action or voice to increase the sound in the monitors but to no avail, I think the sound engineer was not a pro, however, his fan’s ignored all these shortfalls as his presence itself on the stage was a huge deal. The co-ordination of the father and the son was to be seen, they make a great team together, the last song they winded up was with their hit number “Hop-pi-pi”.
Purple Fusion was up next, PF is a band which experiments folk music with funk/ Jazz/ Blues/ Reggae. The band did put up some surprises for the event, they not only performed together with Guru Rewben but also with Rahul Ram (Vocalist/Bassist of Indian Ocean)… the crowd wowed as he took on stage and displayed a charismatic performance. I am not sure about the songs they sang except for one popular number “Bandeh” which was sung by Rahul Ram and PF together in a modified way. It sounded pretty cool.
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| Purple Fusion did create some awesome fusion. |
Like Guru Rewben, Rahul Ram and Mhathung (Bassist of PF) too were facing problems with the poor sound system, yet they pulled up the show to their fan’s satisfaction. Later, Mhathung on FB quoted that
“In my 14/15 years as a musician I have never played in a Hi Tech sound system producing the most hopeless sound with the most arrogant sound engineer I have ever come across. Whoever hired that guy don’t make the same mistake ever again”, Rahul Ram also complained that “
Also, Talkatora Stadium is a terrible venue for amplified sound. It's all reverb and boomy and slapback and standing waves....In 23 years of playing in Delhi I played there only once (1995 or so) before yesterday, and have hated it…. had hoped they would have improved it for the commonwealth games, but…”. I hope this feedback would be valued by the Organizing Committee for future events and shows!
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| Rahul Ram thumping bass on 'Bandeh' |
There was another speech by now which was followed by Alobo Naga & the band, they were the second last performers before the event was over and done with. Alobo Naga & the band is truly an international band, a commercial band, representing Nagaland or India be it in the VH1 or MTV level, their performance at the Naga Fest was not only music but beyond music, that’s where they were a lil unique and stole the show, Alobo that night was highly turbo energised not only with his wonderful singing but also with the messages and the talking which were communicated and expressed to the audience so wonderfully that it touched all the hearts of the Naga’s, he shared the idea of keeping is last name as “Naga”.… He highlighted that being a Naga was a blessing as well as a misblessing cause there are many tribes in the Naga community and this sometimes created a conflict and discrimination amongst the Nagas, so he wanted to put an end to these issues and be known by only one identity as “Naga” in the state as well as outside the state, he pioneered this idea and that’s why he still stands as ALOBO NAGA… isn’t it an amazing message!
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| Alobo Naga & the band |
In between his songs he really did a lot of talking about God, worship, brotherhood, unity etc, keeping in mind it was a two way conversation with the audience. All the songs they sang that night were their own originals and every song carried a specific message which was finely expressed by Alobo while doing the talking… the first song the band played was “youth” dedicating it to the people of Assam who were suffering from the communal riots; the second song was “The End” this song talked about the end of the world; followed by “Kumsujulo” a song that invites the Nagas to come & Live as one; then “Let her Live” a song on Anti Abortion & female infanticide; followed by “Hilikus” which was purely for fun and groovin’ purposes, while singing this song Aloba literally danced like Michael Jackson…lol…the sound of the DJ and mixing of everything was stupendously fantastic….. they ripped the stadium with their music and performance, the last song they winded up before collaborating with Mark Henderson (USA) was their popular song played in VH1…. Yes you’re right “Painted Dreams” awesome music with fantastic vocals… you guys really deserve to win the MTV Europe Music Awards, 2012, yes, their hit video single 'Painted Dreams' has been nominated for the same to be held in Frankfurt, Germany. All they need is our votes & blessings to bring the laurel home... Please vote for them as every single vote counts….
Click here, to take you to the link, to vote:
In the end, Mark Henderson from USA joined with Alobo Naga & the band to put up a great gospel concert, to bless every one and stuff….by this time it was around 9.00 pm and I was starving to death, so my friend and I had to run outside to catch our grub, my sincere apologies for missing on to the last part of the event. Overall the event was a huge success despite of some short falls. God bless!
