Frost Bite Music Festival Kicks Off This Weekend

Saahil and Ipshita. Photo: Prateek Thakur

In the past few years, North India has seen a surge of music festivals like The Escape Festival held in Naukuchiatal, Gulmarg Winter Festival in Gulmarg, Shimla Fest in Shimla, Music in the Hills in Shimla, the Ladakh Confluence in Leh, Manali Summer Sundowners in Manali, Kasauli Rhythm and Blues Festival in Kasauli and most recently, the Aquajam Hill Festival that will be held next month in Naukuchiatal. Each of these multi-day festivals have begun paving the way for music tourism in the country. Joining the lineup is Frost Bite ”“ 2012 that will be held from September 7th to 9th inside the Daranghati Sanctuary, near Shimla in Himachal Pradesh.

Organized by Chandigarh-based music promotion company Filthy Rich Paupers Entertainment [FRPE], the three-day camping festival will see performances by acoustic, metal and electronica artists from the region. FRPE director Ashish Negi explains the festival is being organized to promote local talent from the region in venues other than clubs, resto bars and dive bars that they are used to performing at. “A lot of the talented musicians in Chandigarh especially have a choice of a handful of venues they can perform at. The idea of the festival is to give the bands larger, more open venues to play at. The fact that the area is scenic is an added advantage.”

The artist roster of Frost Bite includes bands from Chandigarh such as acoustic acts Just Ittefaaq and Saahil and Ipshita, metal band Wasted Soul, bands from Shimla such as Ispaat and Deathknell and Night Wings III from Jaipur. Electronica artists from Delhi like Nyu’nTum and Toyz in Panic will also perform at the three-day fest.

While the musicians playing at the fest are relatively unknown, Negi says that the idea was to showcase underground talent that may not make it to more popular festivals like the Escape Festival for instance. “The bigger festivals would rather put popular bands on the lineup. We didn’t want that. Why would be organize a festival and get down the same artists who play everywhere in the country? Where’s the new?” says Negi.

FRPE organized the Inferno Music Festival last year in Kinnaur, Himachal Pradesh as a test run to organizing Frost Bite this year. “It was again a three-day fest which we put together in three weeks straight. The publicity was all word of mouth and we got an amazing response. This year, we found the means to make it bigger,” says Negi.

Here’s the complete lineup of Frost Bite ”“ 2012

Saahil and Ipshita – Chandigarh

Just Ittefaaq – Chandigarh

Shubhank Sharma ”“ Chandigarh

Atul Bhardwaj – Chandigarh

Night Wings III – Jaipur

Deathknell – Shimla

Wasted Soul – Chandigarh

Ispaat – Shimla

Nyu’nTum – Delhi

Vipul Angirish -Delhi

Sunny Trehan – Chandigarh

Ajit Sarthi ”“ Delhi

Toyz in Panic ”“ Delhi

Sidharth Talwar – Delhi

Frost Bite ”“ 2012 will be held from September 7th to 9th at The Hidden Himalayas, Daranghati Sanctuary. For more details, visit the Facebook event page here.