The season will rock...

Over the last few years, there’s been a growth in the ‘festival culture’ associated with independent music in the City.

Not only have they increased in numbers, they are also offering more than just music with flea markets, bike rides and other associated extravaganza.

In the coming weeks, the fans of different genres can delight at the prospect of a lot more live music, given the concerts and festivals lined up till the end of this year.

The ninth edition of The Great Indian Octoberfest is slated to take place from
October 18 to October 20 at Jayamahal Palace.

The line-up includes an excess of Bangalore-based bands like Lagori, ‘The Raghu Dixit Project’ and Agam; Bollywood singers like Mika Singh and non-Bangalore acts like ‘Skrat’, Avial, and Shankar Tucker.

For those who grew up listening to American rock band ‘Hoobastank’, seeing them headline the festival would be memorable. For metalheads, London-based tech metal band ‘Exist Immortal’ is worth checking out.

November will be an even busier month for the music lovers starting with Strawberry Fields, which is being held from November 8 to 10 at the National Law School of India University campus.

The mecca of independent music for Bangaloreans will see 50 bands from across the country battling it out for the first prize.

The competition, which is known to identify the lesser known talents across genres, will be headlined by Mumbai-based metal band ‘Scribe’.

There’s also the second edition of Bacardi NH7 Weekender, which has a promising line-up for November 23 and 24 at Embassy International Riding School.

The multi-stage festival, known to be the happiest one in the country, will showcase the best of Indian music.

International acts are many in number, including Rob Garza (of ‘Thievery Corporation’), Dutch electronic music trio ‘Noisia’, progressive metal band ‘TesseracT’ and English folk-rock band ‘Dry The River’ to name a few.

There’s also the addition of the make-shift stage namely Red Bull Tour Bus this year, which will feature Australian indie-pop band ‘Hey Geronimo’ and Scottish indie-rock act ‘We Were Promised Jetpacks’ alongside Chennai-based ‘The F16s’ and Bangalore’s very own Swarathma.

Electronic Dance Music (EDM) fans should not be disappointed either.

Other than the Group Therapy tour by the UK-based trance music trio ‘Above and Beyond’ on November 22, there’s also the Bangalore edition of Sunburn on November 16 and 17, which will feature German DJ Paul Van Dyk, Dutch house DJ Fedde Le Grand, Dimitri
Vegas and Like Mike, Dutch act Showtek and local acts like Kohra and Arjun Vagale.

American DJ Steve Aoki will headline the second edition of Sound Awake on December 1 at Supernova Arena, while Swedish DJ Avicii will perform on December 7 as part of the Sunburn Arena tour. Akash, an EDM fan, says he can’t wait for mid-November.

   “I’m going to watch Steve Aoki, check out ‘Above and Beyond’ for the second time in a year and listen to Avicii’s new album during his tour,” he says.

Arjun Rao, a concertgoer, adds, “I’m looking forward to Octoberfest to watch ‘Skrat’ and ‘Hoobastank’, which is a childhood love. I can’t wait to check out Roysten Abel’s ‘Manganiyar Seduction’ and ‘TesseracT’ at Weekender. We’ve been pampered with some great acts over the last couple of years. But with respect to the kind of music I listen to, I think last year’s festival line-ups were better.”