The Ladakh Confluence Report: Day 1

The Ladakh Confluence kicked off on Friday, August 28 against the scenic backdrop of the Himalayas. Sharin Bhatti brings us this report from Day 1. Indiecision will have daily updates from Ladakh through the course of the event!

Day one at most new festivals read hiccups. And more so when it’s a confluence at the highest plateau in the world. The Ladakh Confluence popped its cherry on Friday, August 28. Things that were supposed to go off to a flying start were temporarily halted by a missing generator. But by 4pm, things were on a roll. With major changes in the lineup, owing to the fact that the main stage couldn’t be set up on time, two songwriters watched the sun go lower into the Indus river and Himalayas.

The venue for the fest is the historical sight where the Sindhu Darshan takes place each year with towering arches and stages giving an festive ambience to the place. The 200 odd people present at the venue were a mix of castaways, hippies, Mumbaiites (organisers, VJs and TV presenters), and northern plain Punjabis (loads of them) who crowded the local population. Precisely why when the time to groove came, they all yelled. Vedant Bharadwaj, Chennai’s Bhakti Bob Dylan, was the first to strike a wave of emotion. His own rendition of Dylan’s ‘The Times They Are a-Changing’ being the most soulful follwed by learning from Kabir’s Dohas and Namdev. New Zealand’s folk rocker Anna Van Riel sat barefoot with her entourage of instruments – a six string, Hawaiian Lehuaukulele (version of a Banjo) and a New Zealand duck horn made for her eclectic music. A true hippy, she sang stories of her many travels and conquests over man and road. The firangs in the crowd found their true Mama on stage and jived to her melodies.

An impromptu guitar work routine by Rodney Branigan seemed idyllic at sunset. The harmonics and rhythms maverick held two guitars like toys and sucked some air, to watch the sun go down and have all present screaming. “Phew! I’m out of air. I’ll go and crash now,”  he sighed at dusk. Apart from an orginial, he sang ‘Come Together’ by The Beatles and the one-man-band’s rendition was a promise of much to look forward to  in the coming days.

The unrelenting sun, and big curtain fell, when the Chief Minister of Jammu & Kashmir Omar Abdullah, arrived with his entourage of ministers who watched Talvin Singh, Rahul Sharma and vocalist Mahesh Vinayakram jam with their limited sound systems. Talvin’s fancy loops wouldn’t play because of the technical difficulties faced earlier, but the classical jam was efficient enough.

The day was saved more by the locale than the events in it. Here’s hoping day two really brings more noise.