When music gets camp

The Goa edition of the festival

It's almost like a long-forgotten feeling, like the scent of a lover lingering years afte r you have parted ways. Time was when the country's music festival calendar was so chock-a-bloc that you didn't know when one ended and the other began, till everything stopped due to the pandemic. But now, the whiff of that lover's scent, so to speak, is getting stronger again. Mark your calendar for February 26, because that's when the first big-ticket, multi-act indie music festival in Maharashtra after the third wave of the pandemic will be held. It's called Mahindra Open Drive, and has been held before in Jodhpur and in Goa. Now, the organisers are bringing the fest to this state, given that the local government has eased restrictions again.

Kamakshi Khanna

The event will take place at a campsite in Kalote, roughly two hours from Mumbai. The property has a lake, where water sports activities like kayaking will be organised, and there will also be a pop-up bazaar featuring local ware, apart from F&B stalls with varied fare. But all of that is of tertiary interest. The focus will primarily be on the stage where a host of big-ticket indie acts will recreate the magic of watching one band after another belt it out as if there is no tomorrow - and in this case, there actually isn't, since it's only a one-day affair.

These acts include Benny Dayal and Funktuation featuring The Hornflakes, The Local Train, and Peter Cat and Recording Co. All of them are popular within the indie space, but none of them have graced a bona-fide festival stage since the pandemic hit. What does that really mean, for a musician, to be deprived of that vital cylinder of artistic oxygen? Kamakshi Khanna, another popular name who's also on the line-up, explains it to us, saying, "The whole spirit of playing at a music festival is something else. There is so much variety, and the whole energy of a community being together and just responding to the music - that is something that's different from everything else. I have played private shows and standalone gigs, but sharing the stage with so many artistes is what I have been dreaming about."

Khanna also makes a pertinent point when she says that over the past two years, musicians have used whatever technological tools available to them to build an online fan base. "But with social media, there is so much attention to detail. Now, we get to be spontaneous, be ourselves, be real, and be flawed. That's what being a musician is all about, and I can't wait for it," she says, adding that she's been eager to see how an actual in-person audience responds to the new music she's been putting up online, something that fellow singer-songwriter Raghav Meattle sums up with a metaphor when he says, "It's like we have been preparing for an exam. Now, we actually get to sit for it."

On: February 26, 12 pm onwards
At: Camp Max, Kalote Mokashi.
Log on to: insider.in
Cost: Rs 1,499