A detailed breakdown of how the Indian festival experience is so much, err, different.
Indian music festivals have seen a rapid increase in the past few years and thank god for that! We finally have a culture where we can get away from daily mundane life for a few days to revel with the greatest artists of our country and even the world. We have come a long way and might have even longer to go, but let’s celebrate our journey with a classic comparison between the desi music festival experience vs. everywhere else.
1. It’s all in the pictures
We might like to believe that pictures will turn out like this
But the final productΒ turns out to be a lot less #InstaGoals. But hey you tell us who looks like they are having more fun?
2. Food
For firangi festivals: Exotic, Instagrammable and very FOMO-inducing.
Desi festivals have some pretty decent food too, but it’s always the pigging out at McDonald’s later that’s really going to fill you up. Chicken McSpicy zindabad! OrΒ the shady dhaba on the side of the highway will do as well.
3. Fashion
Everyone looks the same at most major music festivals with their flower crowns and crop tops and muscle T-shirts.
But people back home to like to mix things up a little bit.
5. Festival goals tend to differ a little
At places like Tomorrowland and Bonnaroo, having a great time is top priority.
For us desis, #FestivalGoals are a little different. The priority for us is to get home before Dad does and make sure no one finds out you were out raving your worth away.
(Credits: www.thenextmeme.com)
6. The weather
Foreign music festivals: Perfectly sunny, dreamy breeze and clear skies.
Indian music festivals: The unrelenting wrath of the hot, hot sun (even in the winter) directed very specifically at the spot where you are mushed together with 2,000 other people. Ugh.
(By: giphy.com)
7. Water
So in case you didn’t know, water is mostly free at music festivals in abroad. So we now know that the secret to all those perfect selfies and happy smiles is CONSTANT AND FREE HYDRATION. But that’s not really the case for us here, is it?
If you go to a desi festival, you’re going to be spending half your ticket money on water alone. Free water stations? Hell no. Instead we get jacked up prices at stalls that are far away from the stage. It’s heartless, we tell you.
(By giphy.com)
8. Hooking Up
Aah, there really is nothing like a festival romance now is there? The thrill of meeting and ‘exploring’ someone new with no real pressures of a relationship, just happy abandon!
(Credits: www.instagram.com/serafinaw__)
Except at desi festivals. Even though you know your parents are not here, you are pretty sure you just saw your neighbour Sharmaji’s son half an hour ago and you don’t want him to go tattle to your mom if he sees you indulging in such behaviour because you don’t wanna hear the disapproving ‘Now who will marry you?’
(By giphy.com)
9. Pregaming
It just looks so much more fun when white people do it, now doesn’t it? A table full of drinks with laughing, slightly buzzed friends who are on their way with you to having a fun, fun time.
(Credits: www.instagram.com/laurahyndsy)
Now for us, ‘pre-drinking’ is usually just a quarter of Old Monk and a bottle of CokeΒ being sipped while literally walking to the festival. Classy as always.
10. After-parties
Festivals like EDC, Tomorrowland, Bonnaroo are specially known for their hedonistic after-parties.Β They breed wild stories and fill the heart of the listeners with a yearning to experience something like that at least once.
(Credits: www.instagram.com/ek11x6/)
Indian after parties follow a different story line. If we DO manage to stay out all night (read: if our parents let us), it’s usually to go to a friend’s place to get too drunk and crash. No raving parties where we bump into the artists or meet exotic hot foreigners. Not really.
(Credits: giphy.com)
11. Camping
A lot of festivals abroad require camping and most of it is provided by the festival organizers themselves. This also happens to be everyone’s worst nightmare. Your belongings get stolen, someone (not you) ends up having sex in your tent, someone else (definitely not you) takes a shit on your bed. It’s all supposed to be ‘part’ of the experience.
(Credits: www.efestivals.co.uk)
That’s not the case here at all. First of all, Indian festivals provide all kinds of exotic camping, be it in a valley or on top of a mountain or by a lake. Indians ain’tΒ taking shit (geddit?) when it comes to staying outdoors and it is clear with these pictures from various local music festivals.
(Credits: www.instagram.com/warriorsforlyf)