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The Heavy Burden of Being NH7 Weekender: Where Demand and Supply Hardly Meet

Why the long-running music festival, scheduled for November 25th to 27th in Pune, is always hit with criticism when it comes to their lineup

Oct 05, 2022

Australian singer-composer and multi-instrumentalist Nick Murphy fka Chet Faker at his India debut at Bacardi NH7 Weekender in Pune in 2019. Photo: Vikram Chandrashekhar

The 13th edition of Bacardi NH7 Weekender might just prove unlucky for the Pune music festival.

Not only have they gathered the resources to host it a second time in the same year – the 12th edition featuring entirely Indian and Indian-origin artists was held in March – but they’re also up against the resurgent crop of music festivals like Lollapalooza and big-ticket tours bringing around international artists like Russ.

Compounding this is the endless flow of rumors and guessing games for Weekender headliners. While this tradition is built upon the stellar past lineups which have satiated fans – in particular, programming artists such as Opeth, Steven Wilson and Steve Vai, among others – it’s safe to say that the festival hasn’t really been able to meet the mountain of expectations they’ve fostered.

How else do you explain #AtLeastTool – which started out as a genuinely tall order for Weekender to bring down American prog favorites Tool? They command a high fee and come with massive stage production demands that would make them a very unlikely booking for any Indian promoter, much less a festival that’s been running for a decade.

Thanks to the wonderful trollers who are raring to comment on every artist announcement that isn’t Tool, the hashtag became a way to rile up anyone who was unhappy with lineups. This time around, rumors floated that French metal band Gojira would be on the bill for Bacardi NH7 Weekender, causing fans to relentlessly hound the festival to turn rumor into reality. As it turns out, Gojira is not likely to play Weekender, at least going by their first phase lineup announcement.

Which artists are in fact making it to the 13th edition of Bacardi NH7 Weekender then? American folk/indie act The Lumineers (who were on the bill for the virtual festival edition in 2020), Swedish jazz-fusion party-starters Dirty Loops and Boston’s Berklee Indian Ensemble are touted as headliners so far, alongside Indian independent acts such as Parekh & Singh, Bloodywood, Gutslit, The F16s, Tejas, Kamakshi Khanna, Hanumankind, Easy Wanderlings, Yashraj and more.

The comments on Instagram and the laugh reacts on Facebook posts by the festival came in plenty as the announcements rolled out. While there’s little doubt that Bacardi NH7 Weekender is having a tough time living up to their past lineups, these post reactions tell us just how quickly, harshly and often idiotically, we jump on the bandwagon to tear apart the festival’s work.

Among the most obvious whipping posts every year – and this is a larger problem with how music festival culture globally is different from India – is how people are angry about being asked to buy a festival ticket without the lineup being out. Now that a partial lineup is out, people are smugly declaring how glad they are with themselves about not having bought a Weekender ticket sooner, or how they’ll be happy to sell theirs now that the lineup doesn’t meet their expectation. Festivals all around the world sell tickets (and often, those which have been around 10 years like Weekender have sold out tickets) even before artists are announced. Only Magnetic Fields Festival have succeeded at cracking this culture, likely because they exist in a niche space and stick to their guns when it comes to experiences.

On the other hand, for Bacardi NH7 Weekender, this is still a gamble to sell tickets without the lineup and then have fans frustrated and sell their tickets when the headliners don’t meet expectations. With every coming edition, there’s still a chance they won’t sell as much as they need to.

The other troubling issue was how artist announcements were conflated into unnecessary simplification – Parekh & Singh haven’t played Weekender or in Pune since 2016, but bringing them down sounds like an evening at local venue Swig? No doubt there are repeats in the “types” of Indian indie that acts Parekh & Singh are conveniently categorized into, but they’re a rock-solid choice to be on the Weekender lineup.

The other joke that floated around in the comments was how Weekender is lifting unknown artists up and giving them a big stage and that this is somehow conveyed in a mocking, sarcastic tone. It’s honestly one of the best things about the festival, where artists get a big stage and we make new discoveries. Highly recommended on the bill are the likes of rapper/singer and producer duo adL x Dappest, post-rock act VelvetMeetsATimeTraveller, hip-hop group Wild Wild Women and singer-songwriter Utsavi Jha.

While there are more acts to be announced, metal fans have the likes of Gutslit, Pacifist, Kraken and Bloodywood on the bill. While Bloodywood are plotting out an India festival run so there is a valid criticism of Weekender just programming a safe bet, we’re hoping it builds up to a bigger international metal act who can lead the way. Even if it doesn’t, Bacardi NH7 Weekender’s lineup still walks a tightrope between legacy and dependable names. It’s a letdown in some ways but certainly not in all ways, as the Internet may have you believe.

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