Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee to inaugurate Darjeeling music festival featuring rock legend Kee Marcello

Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Swedish rock star Kee Marcello are set to share a mellifluous date when the Darjeeling hills come alive with the sound of music on December 19 this year to kick off the second edition of the four-day Melo-Tea festival, a euphonic carnival in the region.

Banerjee, who has repeatedly claimed her penchant for music and arts, was learnt to have thrown her hat in the ring during her recent trip to the hills to express her willingness to be a part of the festival and flag off the extravaganza in remote mode from Kolkata during her scheduled simultaneous inauguration of the Christmas carnival at Park Street.

The 64-year-old former guitarist-cum-vocalist of hard rock bands ‘Easy Nation’ and ‘Europe’, Marcello, would be performing with his band Live at the festival’s inaugural day.

Europe's all-time greatest hit, The Final Countdown, was released in 1986 and remained on top of the singles charts in 25 countries.

Organised jointly by the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA), the administrative body of Darjeeling hills, and Darjeeling Police, the Melo-Tea fest, besides nurturing local musicians and offering them the platform to showcase talent, also aims at generating youth employment and promoting tourism, stakeholders maintained.

The effort, according to Darjeeling SP Praween Prakash, has paved the way for obfuscating “negative energies” in the region that, till recently, was riddled with political fracas over the demand for Gorkhaland, economic slowdown over tea garden wages and persisting social and law and order issues like drug abuse among a section of youth.

“The involvement of the chief minister in this festival has ensured that we would be able to make this an annual calendar event in Darjeeling, like the hornbill festival in Nagaland,” Prakash told PTI, confirming that the festival has already grown twice over in expanse and popularity compared to its maiden edition last year.

Organisers, it was learnt, deferred the fest schedule by a day to enable a very keen Banerjee to adjust her dates for the inauguration.

For Pragyya Lama, lead member of Darjeeling’s very own popular band 'Mantra' which is scheduled to perform on the inaugural day ahead of the Swedish rock legend, it’s a “dream come true” opportunity.

“I idolised guitarists like Marcello ever since I was in school, trying to learn from his videos and CDs. Darjeeling has had a rich tradition of band music since the 60s when Diamonds was possibly the country’s only band crooning English numbers. Bands like Forbidden Fruit and many others followed suit.

"But then there was a dark period of violence and unrest in the hills. The bands scattered or shifted base. With the Melo-Tea festival, the good old days seem to be coming back,” Lama, who recently returned from a two-month-long tour of the US with his band, reminisced.

This year the festival, having a competition section where 100-odd bands would be making a beeline for cash prizes worth over Rs 40 lakhs, would also have guest performances by Nepal’s folk ensemble 'Kutumba' and a rock band from Nagaland, 'About Us', organisers informed.

The annual Darjeeling Hill Marathon, scheduled to be held on December 22 – the final day of the festival and having an additional cash incentive of Rs 9.8 lakhs, would diversify the otherwise musical milieu into the arena of sports. Organisers have also sprinkled in fashion shows, a Land Rover rally, rock-climbing and paragliding events and even a short film festival offering prize money to winners to add more variety to the extravaganza, the festival website confirmed.

The rock and run fest package also offers multiple exotic trails and hikes for mountain lovers to explore the otherwise ‘unseen Darjeeling’ during the four-day carnival, thanks to the involvement of local youth and tour operators of the region, the website announced.

“We are merely the facilitators for this event and are simply handling funds arrangements and logistics. It’s the local people, especially the youth, who would execute the show,” the SP said.

Integrating music and marathon at the Darjeeling Chowrasta, the venue of the fest, is expected to not only boost winter tourism in the state’s upper reaches but also hold the promise of generating widespread creative excitement among people in the neighbourhood.

“Last year we had some 40 stalls set up at the venue generating an income of around Rs 25 lakhs in two days. This year we are expecting that to far exceed both in terms of participation and sales,” Prakash said.

A local Youth for Tourism community has already completed some 200 hikes in lesser-known parts of Darjeeling with tourists and mountain enthusiasts and is invested in the festival, he informed.

“This kind of exposure to internationally renowned performers is a shot in the arm for local talents who would now look to hone their creative skills instead of getting swayed by disruptions and wasting themselves on drugs. The ball is set rolling and this is only going to get bigger from here on,” Lama pitched in.