Set in the Paro valley, where prayer flags usually outnumber guitar cables, Asia Rock Fest 2025 — Bhutan’s first rock festival — felt like the start of something radical.
Unfolding over two days on Dec. 19 and 20, 2025, at Paro Football Club’s arena, Asia Rock Fest brought together bands from Thailand, Japan, South Korea, Bhutan, and India. In a country often described through stillness and ritual, the festival revealed a side of Bhutan that rarely travels.
Eight out of 12 bands were local, with international bands including New Delhi’s hard rock/heavy metal favorites Parikrama, Japanese instrumental act Paranoid Void, South Korean math-rock act Cotoba and Thailand rock act Poomjit.
The Bhutan bands ploughed through a curious mix of English covers and original material in their native tongue, Dzongkha. Dressed in traditional robes and rocking out to everything from The Weeknd to AC/DC, the styles ranged from hard rock to alternative rock to pop.
Amid -1°C temperatures at night, you could see frost slowly gather on amplifiers, but there was a warmth in the community vibe of the Bhutanese festival that kept it going. Bands like North H, Jimi N The Velvet, Backbeads, Sangay Lhaden Band, and more stepped up, and both on and off stage, the bands were buzzing with an enthusiastic goal to grow live music in the country.
Parikrama, for their part, brought a high-adrenaline set, playing their own songs as well as a few amped-up covers like AC/DC’s “Highway To Hell” to close the inaugural edition of Asia Rock Fest. Although organizers were prepping for a bigger turnout at Paro FC’s arena, the infrastructure showed that they were decently equipped for large-scale concerts. It helps that Asia Rock Fest is funded by Bhutan’s Department of Media, Creative Industry & Intellectual Property, which in turn received financial assistance from the Indian government’s Economic Stimulus Programme to boost the creative industry of Bhutan.
Photos: Shiv Ahuja for Rolling Stone India
Backbeads perform on day one of Asia Rock Fest 2025
Poomjit set the pace with a high-energy set
Thai band Poomjit’s drummer gets into the crowd
The Crossroad vocalist Gopal Pradhan
Jimi N The Velvet brought rock and roll as the penultimate act on day 1
Cotoba brought dizzying math-rock to Asia Rock Fest 2025.
Cotoba’s Dyon Joo shreds
Festival T-shirts were among the merch offerings at Asia Rock Fest 2025
The Revolution shake things up
The crowd gathered amid -1°C temperature at Paro FC’s arena
Maybe Paranoid opened up day two of Asia Rock Fest 2025
Sangay Lhaden Band performs on day two of Asia Rock Fest 2025
Japanese psychedelic act Paranoid Void hang out backstage at Asia Rock Fest 2025
Paranoid Void took time out to hang out with local artists and fans in Paro
Ugyen Tenzin is the Asia Rock Fest organizer by day
Ugyen Tenzin on stage by night, playing with his rock duo North H
New Delhi veterans Parikrama played the festival closing set, bringing high energy to Paro
Parikrama guitarist Abhishek Mittal lets it all out
Parikrama sign off as Asia Rock Fest 2025 came to a close
