Doordarshan brings Arunachal’s Ziro Music Festival to the comforts of your living room

NEW DELHI: Music aficionados who couldn’t get to Arunachal Pradesh in time to see the mesmerising Ziro Festival can now depend on Doordarshan to catch the best of the music festival on air on DD.


In yet another attempt to mainstream the North East, India’s public broadcaster Prasar Bharati, through its broadcast arm Doordarshan, has brought alive the ‘buoyant musical moments’ of Arunachal Pradesh’s Ziro Festival. As the official channel partners of the music festival, DD will relay the music festival until October 28.

The four-day Ziro Music Festival, has brought northeast India into the mainstream consciousness of the country through music, art, and culture. Hosted by the Apatani tribe people at Ziro, the festival, among the largest outdoors musical shows in the country started in 2012 and has grown in terms of number of participants and the musical acts.

The seventh edition of the Festival this year concluded on September 30 and had a vibrant musical platter -- jazz, electronic, hip and folk performances by some of the top notch artists from across the globe. Many bands of national and international repute such as Steve Shelley, Lee Ranaldo, Indus Creed, Peter Cat Recording Company, Barmer Boys,

Menwhopause

, Louw Majaw, Sha’air and Func, Guru Rewben Mashangwa participated in the festival.

“The contours for the festival were etched when the band Menwhopause came to Ziro during their northeast tour in 2011. The idea was hatched one day over some rice beer and from a small idea it became a full-fledged world class festival. The objective of the festival is to promote northeast India and make a four-day space for independent musicians who would otherwise not find a platform for the same," said Bobby Hano, co-founder of the Ziro Music Festival.

Director general Doordarshan, Supriya Sahu said, “The Ziro Valley is slightly difficult to reach. We give an opportunity to music lovers to get a taste of the festival while sitting in their homes. In the long run, I am sure this will germinate new musical talents in remote areas. Doordarshan has been associated with the Ziro Festival for the last two years. This telecast is an integral part of our broader plan to strengthen our reach in the northeast region.”

The festival is supported by the Government of Arunachal Pradesh and the state tourism department. This year, more than 4000 people from across the World descended on Ziro to get a flavour of the festival.

This year the main highlights were MONO (rock band from

Japan

), Sukkanya Ramgopal (India´s first female ghatam player) and Madou Sidiki (75th generation kora player from

Mali

). Nubya Garcia, Sivamani, K4Kekho, Komorebi, Func, Prabh Deep, Takar Nabam were some other star performers of the event.

Takaakiro Goto from MONO says "It´s our first time in India and there couldn't have been a better festival to perform at than this one."

The Ziro Music Festival also saw the first edition of Ziro Literary Festival in collaboration with St Claret College. The one-day event saw literary and art figures like Palash Mehrotra, Minam Apang, Mona Zote and Aditi Rao come together and discuss issues like cultural appropriation, identity and freedom of expression. The highlights of the first edition include a poetry workshop with Aditi Rao, discussions on Northeast identity in a global world, cultural appropriation in the arts, Rock and Roll and a poetry reading session.

The festival also has a green heart and keeping the environment clean was one of the major objectives this year. The festival was preceded by a month-long Sustainable Design Residence Workshop under the mentorship of Kollol Brahmadutta and the slogan for the Ziro Festival was Zero Waste.