Festival Review: Orange Festival of Adventure and Music, Dambuk Returns in Diversified Edition

It’s not the most promising sign when you hear there’s a shortage of oranges in Dambuk ahead of their annual Orange Festival of Adventure and Music. As it turns out, they’ve been exported to places like the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.

Still, the music more than compensates, assuming that’s what you show up for. And honestly, it didn’t feel like there was a shortage of oranges. Prior to the pandemic, Orange Festival did have an unlucky break in their 2019 edition, having to call off some performances (including that of American rap-rock band P.O.D.) due to ongoing civil unrest Assam over the Citizenship Amendment Act.

So now, to return and do the rare thing of keeping their promise (as best they could), the four-day festival brought back the other jinxed headliners – reggae band Big Mountain and alternative hip-hop act Flipsyde. They added delectable diversity in the form of Malian guitar great Vieux Farka Touré, Thailand psychedelic act Yonlapa and even served up some much loved, straight-up commercial EDM with Russian duo Swanky Tunes and Belgian DJ-producer Romeo Blanco.

With at least a couple of venue changes over the years (attendees are said to have destroyed orange trees back when the festival would take place amidst a farm), this year saw a smoother, faster road to Dambuk. It shows a commitment that’s taken them from shaky bamboo pathways to a fully functioning amphitheater stage for thousands, now armed with huge LED screens and lighting rigs, plus green rooms.

Even with all the talks of progress and scaling up, music festivals continue to be a work in progress behind the scenes. There was an acute concern about slapback echoes from the stage, the efforts to make the festival plastic-free were jinxed when stalls themselves offered plastic cups and backstage had too much packaged drinking water. Food remained somewhat pricey, especially if all you wanted was a quick bite. Last-minute cancelations came from U.K. band Fur and Arunachal’s own indie rock favorites Yesterdrive. Truth is, there are always fires to put out and amendments in the chaotic world of event management and we hope the festival continues to adapt on the go.

Although there were repeated announcements that there were no official afterparties, plenty raged on into the night, DJs winding up at 4:30 am. It shows a willingness to party all night out in the Lower Dibang Valley in Arunachal.

The lineup on day one brought in the ace Afro-rock of Vieux Farka Touré, who was bringing his India tour to a close (by traveling the farthest he’d ever been into the country, one imagines), plus Pasighat-origin metallers Dormant, rock from Sikkimese act Salakhala and more.

On day two, the indie rock energy of acts like Guwahati-based Lady Midday and Nagaland’s Since 90’s culminated in wall-of-sound immersive set by Yonlapa and the high-energy antics of Congo-origin, New Delhi act The 4AF. Their call and response vibe, always peppering in namaste and badhiya, made them an instant crowd favorite. The African rhythms ruled once again, this time with the vocalists urging the crowd to go “upar and nichay but also aaram se.

With plenty of time on their hands, Swanky Tunes kicked off what became a two-hour high-energy dive into electro house and progressive, spinning remixes and mashups that gave the crowd exactly what it wanted – to keep their hands and feet moving. Everything from “Smells Like Teen Spirit” to “One More Time” to “How Deep Is Your Love,” Spice Girls, hip-hop and current radio hits were fed into the undeniable might of bass and beats.

The electronic elements of Romeo Blanco and Swanky Tunes were on one side of Orange Festival, and the other side arguably belonged to Goa-based act NectArise on day three. Piling on the grooves to a hypnotic degree and vocalist-keyboardist Manu Ananth spouting mind-expanding philosophies, there was a lot of personality and moods wedged into fist-tight basslines by Jyotsna, tunneling synth progressions and production by National Animal and guitar splashes by Rahul Pinto.

Representing folk and fusion on day three were Manipur’s Sam Paa, who shook off a bit of rustiness and reveled in their pastoral sound, incorporating folk instruments into acoustic-rock. Right after, Nagaland artist Benry Moses was all heart as he brought a change of vibe, exuding sunny dance-y indie rock under the starry skies.

Day three steadily worked its way into the “energy exchange” that Bengaluru act T.ill APES brought with a solid, jazzy and funky set, digging into “My Ex Stacy,” “World Domination” (which sounds great to hear hundreds singing along to) and a bit of material by frontman Hanumankind, including “Cowboy Samurai.”

As someone who started 2022 with the debut of her live band, Mumbai artist Kayan presented a slightly different avatar after putting in the work over the span of a year. Songs like “Heavy Headed,” “DFWM,” “Cool Kids” and “No Shade” saw her spring from Mariah Carey-level soul/hip-hop to warbly trap-hop too and house-informed pop, all in the span of an hour to keep the audience rapt in attention.  

The day closed with American reggae band Big Mountain, who had a soaring sound that lived up to their reputation. Raging guitar solos, precisely paced dub tunes and of course, renditions of songs like “Vande Mataram” to “Hotel California” showed us why they can be favorites in the region that loves classics and is open to hearing them changed up.

The final day of Orange Festival was actually headlined by the France vs Argentina FIFA World Cup final screening, but it didn’t take away from the music. With a scant audience, Arunachal act Maylula invoked nature – specifically horses and sparrows – and love stories for their set, which included the breathy song “Nang.”

Myanmar-born, Mizoram artist Benjamin Sum – who had recently released his EP Out of the Blue – brought a raggedy pop-punk edge to the festival, matching the comedic heaviness of Green Day with jangly-pop and moving on to Radiohead-esque melancholy on “False Hope.” He included his most famous Mizo ballad to date, “Chhingmit In Biahthu Kan Hlan,” which was as grand as expected.

Speaking of grand, Still Waters from Sikkim brought all the hues of the masters of rock – AC/DC, The Who, Lynyrd Skynyrd and more – to Dambuk. Songs like “In Love with a Stranger” was paced not like an anthem but as a song that has deeper meaning. “The Way You Gave Me Life” saluted motherhood, while “Zen” had an unmistakable nod to Judas Priest.

While Motherjane had performed at Ziro Festival of Music in September, Orange Festival brought in fellow Kerala rockers Avial, who ran through songs like “Ayyo,” “Aranda,” “Chekele,” “Nada Nada” and “Kali.” Tony John, Rex Vijayan, Mithun Puthanveetil and Binny Isaac kept things as energetic as ever, although John did want the crowd to burn things down by the end of the set, which could have been a case of a slight energy mismatch.

There was none of that with Flipsyde though, who had made their way down from the Bay Area to keep things all soul and still packing the songs that can make people move. With DJ True Justice behind the decks, rapper Piper, guitarist Dave Lopez and guitarist-vocalist Steve Knight made for a spectacle that nostalgic but also resonant in the present times still. Every Dave Lopez guitar solo sounded crisp and Latin-inflected, while Piper is still unapologetically political in his lyrics about religion, race and society. Steve Knight’s raspy melodies still cut through. The quartet went from euphoric to groovy as they dug into songs from their 2005 breakout album We The People – “Spun,” “Train,” “Angel,” “Revolutionary Beat” and of course, “Someday” – plus songs like “One More Trip,” “Laserbeam,” “Happy Birthday,” and closed with their banger tune “Trumpets” to have everyone jumping around in a moment of mass joy.

There were a few experiments along the way – like Knight performing a campfire jam and a snippet of a song off their next album, their surprise collaboration with Hindi singer-composer Gajendra Verma called “Maar Sutteya,” and more. With “Imagine Peace,” they led Dambuk into a heartening refrain of John Lennon’s “All we are saying, is give peace a chance.”

While the World Cup finale became the main attraction soon after Flipsyde stepped off stage, they did come back for a late set, proving that music can still do all the talking. That, and the rock climbing, ATV riding, ziplining and more that comprised the adventure side of a well recuperated Orange Festival 2022.

Photos: Ashish Gupta and Nandeep Singh