Every once in a while organized is a music festival that though looks incredibly promising on its golden wrapped advertisement brochures and invitation cards but fails rather miserably in terms of its execution from the get go. But rarely, just rarely organized is an event of same genre that you can’t help but admire, appreciate and completely surrender yourself to.
“Emerge Music Festival’s” Delhi tour organized by Viacom 18 on 21st May promised to bring to India the greatest, freshest and newest musical and art experiences from across the world. The tour which was headlined by 2 times Grammy-Award nominees Alt-Jwas looked upon with a lot of expectations by the alternative rock music lovers in India and the festival turned out to be a crowd-pleaser in every sense of the term with fans moving out of the Indira Gandhi Sports Complex with a consistent smile on their faces.
Unlike most recently organized other music festivals in the country Emerge Delhi had its focus solely set on the content that the festival had to offer. As soon as one entered the arena at Emerge they could easily be surprised by how little did the festival by Viacom 18, (a global brand behind the unabashedly incredible IP like Supersonic) had to offer in terms of the venue decoration and surprising elements.
Barring a life balloon of Vivo Smart Phone, installation of a giant monster drink and a free makeover section by Hindustan Unilevers TIGI, the venue hardly had anything interesting to offer. While for most music festivals this might be one of the biggest disadvantages but in case of Emerge the music loving attendees however looked happy with the absence of too many distracting elements allowing them to solely focus on nothing but the music
A fact that makes Emerge standout in terms of delivery was how beautifully the event faired in terms of time management.Not only did the event begun and end bang on time but the smooth flow of performances one after the other sustained the growing engagement of the audiences present. The opening act performed by post fusion, psychedelic band Advaitaadded to the audience’s enthusiasm as the alleged party of the year already started even before the main performers had come up on the stage.
As advertised, at sharp 8 Alt+J got on to the stage and shook the foundation of Indira Gandhi Sports Complex off its foundation by their phenomenal performances. Rajiv Singh Sodi, 27 year old businessman from the city said, “This is exactly what you want in a music festival. Give the performers the musical equipment that they need and allow them to take the audience by storm.”
SebaSodi, 19 from Delhi University said “Most music and dance festivals today in an attempt to increase their value try to offer too much on the plate and that makes the event chaotic rather than an experience you would want to remember. I paid 3000 bucks to come here and listen to Alt+J rock me and in the manner the festival has progressed so far I feel I have already received the value of my money.”
Another interesting highlight of the festival was the performance by Singer-Songwriter PrateekKuhad. With the language of his music being multi-lingual, theaudience was able to connect more to the performer as he performed the songs from his new album “Tokens and Charms”.
Coming down to the main content there is no doubt that Emerge was showcase for the immensely talented performers Alt+J, who with their magnificent performances created a frenzy that left the audience dancing, hooting, applauding and mesmerized till the very end. This was the first time that the English Indie Rock Band had come to perform in India and the impact they created at the festival is certainly going to make them a regular demand for upcoming musical festivals.
With tremendous scope of improvement in the sanitation facilities department Emerge Delhi, by Viacom 18 is a testament of the fact that a successful musical event is not merely a conglomeration of loosely attached diverse elements into an event format but allowing the main content of the festival i.e. the performers to take the center stage and blow the audience away with their magnificence. I wish more music festivals organizers take a note from this event on the fact that ‘Simplicity while organizing and Sensation while execution’ is the ultimate success mantra for an event. You don’t always need to have the most elite, expensive and exquisite meal to curb your hunger, sometimes a sincerely cooked home meal does the trick.
