The Sherp was at the Bacardi NH7 Weekender Hyderabad and is now nursing a Weekender hangover while typing this out.
Hyderabad just witnessed its first edition of the Bacardi NH7 Weekender, and if the question of whether it lived up to expectations is still looming in your minds, we are here to clear it up for you.
The two-day festival had been held at the GRM Arena, Shamsabad, which meant a long commute for everyone living the city. As it was held in the area around the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, relying on public transportation was not an option, leaving the attendees, without their own means of transportation, to choose between the Weekender shuttle service, or Uber. But, that did not stop the venue from getting packed by the later half of the event on both the days.

The Day 1 of the festival kickstarted with a soulful performance by Arpit Chourey, the indie singer-songwriter from Hyderabad, followed by an energetic dance performance by Ganesh Talkies. The group, dressed in blue hospital gowns, began their set with ‘Monsters in Your Head’, which was enough to get the crowd moving. It was a difficult choice to make between Prateek Kuhad and Sapta who were playing next, on The Dewarists and Breezer Vivid Village stage respectively. Thankfully, Sapta had a longer set, so we managed to catch the second half of their performance. Kuhad sang his hit tracks such as ‘Yeh Pal’ and even several new tracks such as ‘Closer’ and ‘Kitne Vaade Bakhi’ giving the audience a preview of his upcoming works. Sapta, on the other hand, was wowing their audience with a powerful performance that had the audience dance like there was no tomorrow.

Prateek Kuhad sang several unreleased singles

Vasu Dixit of Swarathma

Skrat gave a mind blowing performance and had the crowd screaming for more

Parikrama took The Dewarists stage while Func, followed by Murthovic, played on the Breezer Vivid Village stage

Nucleya, as always, brought his best and got the crowd thumping

Day 2 began on a grunge rock note, with The Tapes taking up The Dewarists stage. Alluri, took up the Bacardi House Party stage, while simultaneously Sid Vashi played on the Breezer Vivid stage. Nicholson, who followed the performance, had people swaying their bodies, while Aswekeepsearching had the crowd head-banging at the Bacardi stage. There was some last minute changes in performances, where Ankit and The Ghalat Family replaced Vir Das’Alien Chutney, surprising the crowd. Bhayanak Maut, who performed next on the Bacardi stage, got the people who had been “made tired by the DJ sets” to headbang like never before, and even encouraged them to form a mosh-pit.

Ankit and The Ghalat Family took stage instead of Vir Das’ Alien Chutney. They played tracks from their latest album, Side A Side B.

Bhayanak Maut sang some of their best tracks such as ‘All glory to the beard’ and ‘Genosis’

The Raghu Dixit Project got everyone pumped

Farhan Live on stage with Shraddha Kapoor

Farhan managed to pull the crowd to Weekender
The Weekender ended on a high. Overall, the Hyderabad edition did not disappoint. The production, sound quality and even the line-up (even with all the cancelled acts) was extremely good. While most of the crowd seemed to be first-time-goers, who were, as described by Vinay Venkatesh of Bhayanak Maut, “unsure of what to do”, they all formed one of the most enthusiastic audiences at a Weekender. Despite being a small venue, the team pulled together an interesting group of sellers, such as Supervek and Aha Stuff. All in all, we were made very happy, just as they promised.

Just the Weekender vibe
All images were clicked by Santosh Kumar