Page 87 - Forbes - India (January 2020)

Jishnu ChakraBorty

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grown from zero audience to thousands,” he says.
(Above) Celebrating a decade of bringing local and
Nick
Murphy, international acts, the 2019 edition in Pune had
one of the performances by Irish rock band Kodaline,
headline
acts of Ritviz, Indian Ocean, pop and folk band Easy
the Pune Wanderlings, Faridkot, Midival Punditz,
edition;
(left) Over Swarathma among others. The likes of Nick
100 artistes Murphy aka Chet Faker, Hariharan A and
and 65,000
music Brodha V used visuals extraordinarily to keep
aficionados the audience engaged while Malayalam folk-
attended
the 10th fusion artiste Job Kurian set a foot-tapping mood.
edition of The festival’s headlining acts included Opeth
Weekender
in Pune and heavy metal performances by PENGSHUi,
Bhayanak Maut and Gutslit. The festival also saw
performances by Kokoroko, Wadalis, Sandunes,
Lifafa, Garden City Movement and Swadesi.
“I’ve attended all 10 editions of NH7 Weekender
Pune and the festival has given me some very special
Jishnu ChakraBorty memories over the years. Of course, I’ve been able
this time in Pune. “I was so nervous, I wasn’t sure if to see some of my favourite international bands
people even knew about this song. But 3,000 people live—Karnivool, TesseracT and Opeth will top that
turned up. That is where I found my audience and list; but I’ve also discovered some great music out
the crowd started recognising me. As an artiste, there, and often from genres I don’t traditionally
I’ve got a lot of opportunities after performing at listen to,” says Deepak Gopalakrishnan, a freelance
NH7. This year I was headlining the electronic writer from Mumbai. “It’s got such a diverse
stage for the second time and almost 4,000 people line-up that those who are open-minded enough
turned up. Weekender is special to me because I’ve will certainly find something new to discover.”

january 31, 2020 • forbes india