Performances were split across two stages, while nearly 1,500 people made the trek to the mountainous paradise. The attendees camped out as did the musicians, in tents a la Glastonbury style-y. The festival grounds were peppered with food stalls (yum yum pork curry!), stands selling Coorg curios as well as Storm merch.

Fun happenings at the festival included a paintball area in full swing during day two, and a midnight jam session around a bonfire featuring members of Yodhakaa, Parvaaz and Swarathma, with a BBQ on the side.

Here is a glimpse of the festival, in pictures.

Raghu Dixit of The Raghu Dixit Project @ Storm Festival, Coorg

Nikhil Chinapa @ Storm Festival, Coorg

Vasu Dixit of Swarathma @ Storm Festival, Coorg

Himanshu Joshi of Indian Ocean @ Storm Festival, Coorg

The peeps at the Storm Festival, Coorg

Photos by Abhimanyu Ghoshal. Stay tuned for a full gallery of photos. Also, this.

Tickets are now available on BookMyShow at Rs 1,800 per head.

Check out our notes and reviews from last year’s edition of the festival.

Lineup

Saturday, February 4
Blackstratblues ft. Nikhil D’souza
Rodney Branigan
Ayush Shrestha and Nigel Rajaratnam
Reggae Rajahs ft. Cali P & Steppa Style
Drum Circle
Etienne Mbappe & Su La Také
DJ Sasha
Papon & The East India Company

Sunday, February 5
Ankur & The Ghalat Family
Ayush Shreshtha
Soulmate
Nigel Rajarathnam
DJ Sasha
Dualist Inquiry
Nitin Sawhney

Check out a video of Nitin Sawhney performing live with Anoushka Shankar (who is also going to tour the country next week).

Check out the lineup below.

Bands
Indian Ocean
The Raghu Dixit Project
Lesle Lewis
Swarathma
Soulmate
Faridkot
Ankur & The Ghalat Family
Yodhakka
Agam
La Pongal
Airport
Parvaaz

DJs
B.R.E.E.D
Pearl
Arjun Vagale (of Jalebee Cartel)
Sanjay Dutta
Tuhin aka Brute Force
Vachan Chinnappa
Wayne Beck
Absolute
Chubby
Kay Mikado
Vishnu
Sekhar
Kalypso
Vilas

Visuals – Kaycee
Official Storm Festival DJ – DJ Swing

More from Storm Festival as we hear it.

Amidst all of that, local graphic designer Sukrit Nagaraj, also an aspiring photographer, clicked some photos at the festival. However, whilst editing his photos he realized he wanted to do something different, considering everyone was uploading photos anyway. The idea, in its core, was to bring together “graphic designing with photography to create some posters to grab the attention of the audience”. The result is a series of art posters of several performers at the festival, that Nagraj has made available for free download. Nagraj has received fairly good response to this project, as evidenced by his Facebook page, and plans to take this up on a larger scale.

As Nagraj puts it, “There aren’t many places I know of, where you get good posters of Indian bands and definitely not for free. Like I said, with the posters, I just wanted to grab everyone’s attention towards my photography and designing skills.” He’s put together posters for several bands including Bhayanak Maut, Scribe, Blackstratblues, Goddess Gagged, Blakc, Pentagram, The Circus, Soulmate, The Raghu Dixit Project and Shaa’ir + Func.

Check out the entire set of posters here. Also, check out our pick of the lot below.

P-Man of Shaa'ir + Func

Check out all our coverage of the Bacardi NH7 Weekender here.

Hipnotribe
This funk-rock band kicked off The Dewarists Stage performances with a fusion of instruments including tabla and percussion, playing an array of jazz, uptempo ’70s rock, and their most recent track to hit MTV, ‘Dark and Delicious’. The laid-back vibe of their set got the audience appropriately geared up for the rest of the performances.

Paresh Kamath of Hipnotribe at The Dewarists Stage

Advaita
New Delhi band Advaita were putting things in perspective on fusion. The band manages to channel their diverse influences and interpose conflicting styles of music in a manner which makes them hard to hate. They initially played music off their upcoming album due early next year and then moved on to more well-known material. The band effortlessly surpassed expectations.

Advaita

Soulmate
The Shillong blues rockers began with a riveting Floyd-ian guitar solo by Rudy Wallang, who can make a guitar moan and squeal with his nimble fingers. Lead vocalist Tipriti Kharbangar could tint glass with her cracking blues vocals. Every word she belted out made the crowd scream. She says, “I sing to touch people. I want you to feel the music”. With vocals that reach out and touch, and with guitar licks that coil around you, people were caught in a Soulmate vice-grip.

Tipriti of Soulmate

The Raghu Dixit Project
Dixit represented the south at The Dewarists Stage on day two with his band that included a new flautist. He started with his new song ‘Masti Ki Basti’ from The Dewarists TV show. Even though he only played four songs, the upbeat nature of the set resonated through the audience. He sang two Kannada songs too, one of which he made the audience sing back. Funnily, no one could remember the Kannada lyrics, people tended to scream out gibberish because they were feeling the happy Dixit vibe. He even stopped mid-song because people weren’t dancing enough. As Raghu Dixit said, “Don’t worry be happy but if you want to worry, then I don’t give a damn.”

Raghu Dixit

THE OTHER STAGE
While The Dewarists Stage was prepping between artist sets, The Other Stage provided the acoustic alternative. The Other Stage featured performances from singer-songwriters like Ayush Shreshta, alternative rockers Fire Exit, powerful blues-punk acoustic from Alisha Batth, and stripped down rocker – Siddharth Basrur.

Ayush Shreshta

British electronica artist Imogen Heap headlined The Dewarists Stage. Find out more here.

Check out the lineup of day three at The Dewarists Stage here.
For a live update of all that is happening at Magarpatta City, go here.
If you can’t make it for the Bacardi NH7 Weekender, watch some performances live online.

Photos by Kunal Kakodkar