Manganiyar Seduction Head To Bengaluru

The Manganiyar Seduction. Photo: Monisha Ajgaonkar

Even as Bengaluru’s music enthusiasts continue to bemoan the ban on Palace Grounds, the city’s festival scene seems to have made peace with the outskirts. The latest addition to Bengaluru’s alternative venues is Innovative Film City, a 40 acre space that houses an amusement park and is located off the Bangalore-Mysore Highway, which will host a music, art, dance and science festival this month. Titled Ruins of The Renaissance (ROTR), the two-day festival claims to be “India’s first large scale creativity and innovation festival” and oddly goes on to call itself the “Woodstock of India.”

Festival director Shweta Thakur, who along with Shinoy Thomas, has organized ROTR explains its curious title: “Renaissance was the one time in history where there was a major cultural action mainly because all disciplines came together. Through this festival, we want to bring any and every discipline under one umbrella of creativity and innovation. And ruins because we are trying to recreate it all,” she says. Partly crowdfunded, the organizers plan to make the ROTR festival an annual affair. With about 150 events including a woodwork exhibition, kitemaking and origami workshops, ROTR has been planned on an ambitious scale.  

As for the music lineup, the dazzling Manganiyar Seduction is the highlight. The two-day festival will feature two stages”” the main stage (folk music) and a beach stage (electronica). Roysten Abel’s audio-visual spectacle, The Manganiyar Seduction will perform on the mainstage on day one of the festival. Other artists on the lineup include baul music project Oikyotaan, Delhi-based electronica artist Udyan Sagar aka Nucleya, hip hop band Bombay Bassment and Arjun Vagale (ex-Jalebee Cartel) among others. “We will be doing a new ska-influenced version of ”˜Son Of A King’ apart from shuffling with our older set,” says Bombay Bassment drummer Levin Mendes. “”˜Miss Goody’ is another ”˜reggaeton’ love tune we will play,” he adds about their hour-long set. 

There will also be an open mic stage at the venue, allowing attendees to plug and play. “We will be using this stage to bring together new bands who need a stage for recognition. Artists can ping us and share with us their work, we would love to try and give them a slot. There are also some time slots where the stage will be open to artists on the spot to plug and play or collaborate,” says Thakur, adding, “We also encourage people to bring along their guitars or sax and play to the crowd. We want the experience of street art to come alive.” And if you are still not stage ready, the festival is also giving away a limited edition Ehsaan Noorani Stratocaster to one lucky attendee. 

Thakur explains the idea of putting arts and science on a common platform: “We have not seen them together. But our thought is that even a computer engineer writing a beautiful program is a form of art. Both these disciplines cannot function in isolation. A great technology without a good design is as much of a failure as a great design without good technology. So there is an inherent need to bring these streams together to see what kind of collaborations can be developed.” 

Ask Thakur why ROTR is being dubbed as the Indian version of the iconic 1969 festival with no rock n roll roster to watch out for, she says that ROTR simply hopes to recreate the spirit of the festival. “It’s primarily because of the freedom of mind and spirit that we associate with that period. So we want to recreate the vibes – not necessarily the physical ambiance. We want people to free their minds, try new things, lose inhibitions, find themselves,” she adds.  

Ruins of the Renaissance music lineup:

Saturday, May 25th, 2013:

Oikyotaan

Twilight Players

Kuru Circus

Color Drumming by Drum Events India

Manganiyar Seduction

Vipul Angrish

Low Rhyderz 

Nucleya

Sunday, May 26th, 2013:

DJ Alex 

Sam Abraham 

Under The Influence

Bombay Bassment

Arjun Vagale

The Ruins of the Renaissance will be held at Innovative Film City, Bengaluru on May 25^th and 26^th. For details, click here. For tickets, click here . Tickets priced at Rs 1,500 (day pass); Rs 5000 (VIP day pass includes unlimited alcohol) and Rs 9,000 (VIP season pass for two days)