07 November,2021 07:18 AM IST | Mumbai | Nidhi Lodaya
Locals Moon Rabbit, a travelling micro festival, held its first edition at Jim Corbett National Park last weekend. Pics courtesy/Abhineet Dang and Gaurav Rajput
Imagine attending a music festival inside a national park or a heritage palace. This is the new kind of experience organisers of micro festivals are hoping to recreate to showcase local, indie talent.
Micro gigs are on the rise in the West, and India isn't far behind. According to Eventbrite, an event management and ticketing website, micro and boutique festivals increased by 400 per cent between 2014 and 2018.
A micro festival usually consists of a smaller group of people - anywhere between 200-250 people in India. "The line-up doesn't matter in micro festivals," says Sarthak Kulshreshtha, promoter and co-founder of Bengaluru-based booking, touring and promotion agency Bohemian Live. The focus is on providing one-of-a-kind experiences to the audience. Organisers say concert goers too don't mind travelling long distances to enjoy the unique vibe.
Locals Moon Rabbit, a travelling micro festival, founded by Vijay Kumar, Sonia Sekhri and Siddhant Gupta, had its first edition at Jim Corbett National Park on the Halloween weekend. They are also founders of Locals District, a boutique techno festival, which is held in Kalwar Castle near Jaipur. "Because of COVID-19, we couldn't execute it [Locals District], so instead, we came up with Locals Moon Rabbit, a travelling festival," says Kumar.
The micro festival will move to Goa in January 2022, followed by Kaziranga National Park or Shillong in the Northeast around March, Coorg in June and Nubra Valley, Ladakh, later in the year.
Accommodation is arranged in the same venue as the show, and that's a big draw. "Reaching these destinations can be challenging and difficult, but that's what people love and want to experience," adds Kulshreshtha. Kumar points out how these live-in festivals have the vibe of an international festival. People live there for two to three days, and bond and connect with each other, as well as the artistes, who reside in the same premises. "It is quite a wholesome and emotional experience."
When compared to larger festivals, where the focus is on getting more crowds, micro fests have an emotional value attached to it.
Yes, they can be a strain on the pocket. "But, if you consider the festival as a vacation, it won't seem that expensive," Kulshreshtha says. Kumar mentions how some members of the audience and the artistes at the Locals Moon Rabbit festival where a single ticket costs R4,000 onwards - even booked the safaris at Corbett National Park.
At Locals Moon Rabbit, the focus, he says, is also on providing a platform to artistes from smaller towns and cities. "In our recent line-up, 18 out of the 20 artistes were from Ludhiana, Chandigarh, Dehradun and Rishikesh, among other parts of India."
Kumar says he initially wanted this fest to be on the lines of the Red Bull Tour Bus, where the actual stage is atop a bus, but "we realised that it wasn't logistically feasible. We also wanted to target different parts of the country, different audiences and artistes too." In order to keep the concept alive, the organisers are planning to provide free entry or some perks for the next destination.
Both Kulshreshtha and Kumar believe that micro festivals are going to be the next big thing, especially now, in COVID times, where people prefer being part of smaller gatherings. "Our audience has become more mature, and we see this culture take off in a big way," says Kumar.
