This three-day music festival took place at KTPO, Whitefield, a huge ground with two stages active at all times. There were shops like ‘Inkfruit’, ‘Psy Baba’ and ‘Party Mania’ selling wacky hats, and T-shirts, and other fun merchandise to add to the festivities. The beer kept flowing, there were plenty of eateries all around, a hookah lounge to relax, and even a trampoline to jump on!
Still the location did have some drawbacks as Sujit Nair, the drummer of ‘Pitch Black Symphony’ pointed out. “When the event was at Palace Grounds last year, there were close to 20,000 people. This year, there are not more than 5000-6000 people across the three days. It’s a great festival to have in Bangalore and the set-up is awesome. But it’s just fun to play when there are more people.”
Each event has its own set of flaws and while the turnout might have been less and the location far from the main City. But those who did attend the event were surely not complaining. “‘Octoberfest’ was one of the best musical experiences I have had. To be able to listen to ‘Tough on Tobacco’, ‘Junkyard Groove’, and ‘Chronic Blues Circus’, all at the same place, was a great feeling,” said Ayesha Sruti, student. “I’m waiting for the next year’s edition of it,” she added.
Some very interesting stage acts were seen across the three days — ‘Papon’ doing the Bihu dance, ‘Junkyard Groove’ frontman Ameeth Thomas removing his shirt and performing, Sidd Coutto from ‘Tough on Tobacco’ making up a funny impromptu song on a random topic given by an audience member and even, ‘Poets of the Fall’ doing
a short acoustic set for the audience.
This was one of the first few big gigs for ‘Adam & the Fish Eyed Poets’, a Chennai-based band exploring the proto Western genre. “We’re from Chennai where gigs don’t really happen. This was a really good exposure for the band,” said Kishore Krishna, the band frontman.
Despite the variety of performances that took place over the festival, the highlight of the fest remained ‘Poets of the Fall’, a Finnish band. Popularly known for their hits, ‘Carnival of Rust’ and ‘Revolution Roulette,’ ‘Poets of the Fall’ played a very entertaining hour-and-a-half long set on the concluding day.