Page 86 - Forbes - India (January 2020)

ForbesLife music

The music

rolls on

In the 10 years since it started, NH7 Weekender
has featured over 600 artistes from India and
around the world

By NaaNdika TripaThi

ressed in a yellow kurta, with a garland
around his neck and a tilak on his Hariharan
A, who used
forehead, Australian singer-songwriter, visuals to
Nick Murphy aka Chet Faker seemed keep the
D to have fallen in love with India on his audience
engaged
first visit. And India seemed to return the sentiment.
“I love you Nick, marry me!” shouted a young
woman as the man who solo-travelled the world
86 for four years recording vocal tracks in spaces that
inspired him for his album ‘Run Fast Sleep Naked’
(April 2019) took the stage at the 2019 edition
of Bacardi NH7 Weekender Pune last month.
The show was packed, and some people in
the crowd had bought tickets just to see him
perform on the last day. Spread across the
sprawling 30 acres of Mahalakshmi Lawns in
Pune, the festival was a three-day story of sold-
out tickets, six stages and a vibe that stayed with
the crowd long after the festival was over.
NH7 Weekender has come a long way from
when it first started in Pune in 2010 with just
four stages, 35 artistes and 3000 attendees. In its
tenth year, the Pune edition saw over 100 artistes
across genres like indie, metal, rock, electronic
and a whopping 65,000 attendees over three
days. One of the biggest music festivals in India,
conceptualised by Only Much Louder (OML
Entertainment), NH7 has featured over 600
artistes from India and around the world across talent,” says festival director Supreet Kaur.
hariharan: Vikram Chandrashekhar people who love music together, especially the the artistes who first performed at NH7 Weekender
genres, and has expanded to include weekends in
Bengaluru, New Delhi, Kolkata and Meghalaya.
Twenty-two-year old Ritviz Srivastava is one of
“When we started, we just wanted to bring
Delhi in 2015. That year, Srivastava had just opened
for another artiste. “When I was playing, there
independent music community. We have 20
was literally no crowd, except for my parents,” he
percent international artistes and 80 percent
local talent. And we like to keep it that way
recollects. A week after the launch of his song Udd
because we want to celebrate homegrown

forbes india • january 31, 2020 Gaye in 2017, he again played at NH7 Weekender,