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 withΒ 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’Β and even several new tracks such as ‘Closer’Β and ‘Kitne Vaade Bakhi’Β 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.
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’
Surprises for the day did not end with the impromptu appearance by Ankit Tiwari. Josh Fernandezβ, vocalist and guitarist of The F16βs broke two fingers in freak accident leaving him incapable of playing. Skratβs guitarist Sriram T.T stepped up and played on behalf of Josh. They played a very heavy set and left out all their earlier tracks and ended their set with ‘Nukes’. The Raghu Dixit Project had people sing back Kannada and Telugu lyrics back to the band, as several moved towards the Bacardi stage so that they could catch their spot right in the front for Farhan Live. While, personally, the choice of Farhan Live as a headliner at an indie fest seemed weird, the crowd that had gathered on the grounds seemed to think otherwise. Farhan, who started the performance with the very loved ‘Sinbad the Sailor’Β was received with loud hoots and applause. Shraddha Kapoor made a surprise entry, and sang tracks such as ‘Udja Re’Β from the latest movie, Rock On 2. To be honest, we were belting out the lyrics along with the crowd. From where we were standing, we could even see people backstage, dancing and singing along.
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, βunsure of what to doβ, 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.