Photos: NH7 Weekender Pune Day 3

Seun Kuti and Egypt 80. Photo: Monisha Ajgaonkar

Unlike the first two days of Weekender, the last day saw a steady flow of festive goers come in early. Delhi’s Peter Cat Recording Co. opened the festival with frontman Suryakant Sawhney pulling off an opening performance with ease. Sawhney is an unlikely star with a droll sense of humor that comes to the forefront every now and then. When he realized that he couldn’t do much to shake the collective ennui of the indolent audience sprawled on the grass, he remarked: “This looks like a scene from the summer camp at Kuch Kuch Hota Hai.” While PCRC’s set was marked with very few technical glitches, Mumbai pop punk band, The Lightyears Explode, probably bore the brunt of it as the sound was close to inaudible at one point during the set. 

The Dewarists stage on the other hand saw some impressive performances by Australian Afropop act Jinja Safari. Kailasa, Hindi film vocalist Kailash Kher’s folk rock act, also played on this stage and delivered a crowd-pleasing performance. Bombay Bicycle Club, who played right next to this stage at The Other Stage, managed to pull off a mellow, striking set despite missing their guitarist and drummer.

At the other end of the festival, EDM fans geared up for BLOT’s 3D set. The audience were quick to put on their 3D glasses that were distributed at the stage as Berlin electronica act Jahcoozi stepped up on stage to collaborate with the Delhi audio-visual act. 

By the end of the day, the festival was divided into two sets of fans – ones who wanted to watch Afrobeat musician Seun Kuti and Egypt 80 on The Dewarists stage and those who headed to Black Rock Arena for Australian prog metallers Karnivool. In fact, Das Racist’s Heems found himself playing for a small audience as most of the crowds drifted towards The Dewarists and Bacardi Black Rock Arena stages. Heems’ refusal to perform the Das Racist YouTube hit, ”˜Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell’ to keep the handful of fans at his stage happy didn’t help either. 

While some Weekender regulars hoped for a surprise All-Star jam long after the day’s headlining acts closed their sets, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that the organizers of the three-day fest had pulled out all stops to turn this festival into the country’s best music event for a third year in a row. 

Photos: Monisha Ajgaonkar

 Also check out our photos from Day 1 and Day 2