Hornbill Music Festival to Host Beatbox Championship This Year

The 32 finalists were selected by a panel of judges comprising of MC Eucalips (finalist of American Beatbox Championship and CEO of Beatbox Without Borders), entrepreneur Vineeth Vincent and Sri Lankan beatboxer Julius Mitchell

Nagaland’s Hornbill Music Festival, which hosts India’s biggest government-sponsored rock contest, is expanding its ambit to include more genres. This year, for the first time, the popular North-East cultural event will host a beatboxing championship from December 6th-8th.

The idea to put together a contest of this kind occurred to Yanpvuo Kikon, one of the organizers at Hornbill, after a video that he recorded of two young beatboxers went viral earlier this year.  Says Kikon, “I thought why not have this competition and find out who is the best beatboxer in India.”

From the 100 entries received from across India, 32 were selected by a panel of judges comprising MC Eucalips (finalist of American Beatbox Championship and CEO of Beatbox Without Borders), entrepreneur Vineeth Vincent and Sri Lankan beatboxer Julius Mitchell.

The 32 finalists will now battle it out in front of thousands at the Hornbill Music Festival. Apart from winning the judges over, they will also need to impress two other eminent personalities””former champion of Beatbox World Championships, the French artist Alem, and Pepouni, from the beatbox collective Swissbeatbox. As a warm-up exercise, all finalists will get an opportunity to attend a workshop with the judges a day before the competition.

On the day of the contest, every participant will be given 60 seconds to amaze the judges. Participants will be judged on technique, originality and musicality.

The winners will walk away with a microphone designed especially for beatboxers as well as cash prizes of Rs.20,000, Rs.30,000 and Rs.50,000 for third, second and first place, respectively. Adds Kikon, “Beatboxing has the potential to become a part of pop culture in our country, and there is a market here.”