Save the date for Echoes of Earth, India’s Greenest Music Festival
Don’t miss Bengaluru’s music festival that will celebrate music, art and culture in the most environmentally-conscious way possible. Here is a curtain-raiser on the event...
Bengaluru’s very own music festival and India’s greenest music festival, Echoes of Earth is scheduled to be held on December 7 and 8, 2019 at Embassy Riding School, Yelahanka. This annual festival is a celebration of music, art, and culture, and as they get ready to launch the fourth edition of sounds from across the globe, there is a palpable sense of excitement in the air.
The music festival will host various artists ranging from Acid Pauli, Squarepusher, Shigeto, Fakear to Prabhdeep. This year, it will cater to a larger audience with its diverse music artistes cutting across genres and can be enjoyed by a wider demographic of people, ranging from children to older folk. The artistes have an interesting repertoire of music lined up for the audience, which ranges from Indian folk to live-electronica.
The live event is divided into four stages with a world fusion stage, a live electronica, techno and the acoustic-unplugged stage and with pop-up performances for children as well.
Over the years, Echoes of Earth has been a celebration of the environment and the festival has used its platform to spread a larger message – “Preservation and conservation of the earth”.
Amidst worldwide efforts to end climate crisis, Echoes of Earth's efforts in this direction stand out. In collaboration with several artists, the entire festival is largely produced using upcycled and recycled material.
Upcycled and recycled materials are then used to build large stages and installations. The festival aims to prove that large scale events can be executed sustainably and responsibly. This year, along with a solar-powered stage, Echoes will use renewable energy to light up most of the festival arena.
Installation at the Echoes of Music festival
This year, the theme of the festival is ‘The Sanctuary’. This is to highlight and celebrate the splendid yet endangered species of flora and fauna in India and the world.
Some of the festival highlights to look out for this year include the ‘The Mahseer Installation’ by the Wildlife Association of South India. The Humpback Mahseer often referred to as the “Tiger of the Cauvery river” is the largest of 16 Mahseer species found globally and is one of the largest freshwater fish in India. The festival will display an interactive art installation built from scrap items that will draw awareness to the Humpback Mahseer found in the Cauvery river. Scrap collected via collection drives along the Cauvery river will be used to build the installation.
The festival will also host a Flea Market, hosting a wide range of organic and sustainable products in its flea market to create awareness of an alternative way of living, by displaying the products available to lead such a lifestyle.
In an interaction with YourStory Weekender, Roshan Netalkar, Festival Director, Echoes of Earth Festival spoke about what to expect from the festival this year.
Edited excerpts from the interview:
YSWeekender: Can you give us some background into Echoes of Earth? How did it all begin and what was your main aim of starting this music festival?
Roshan Netalkar: The idea was to organise a music festival which would showcase great music from around the world to an Indian audience which is evolving in its music taste. Simultaneously, we wanted to use the festival as a platform to stand for something more than just good music. Living in Bengaluru, we are witness to the rapid erosion of natural resources. It is the need of the hour to get up and create a responsible and sustainable environment. This thought became the driving force behind the festival and hence, Echoes of Earth. Music is universal, and we decided to use music as a platform to spread the message of a more conscious way of life.
YSW: What's special about this year's Echoes of Earth Festival?
RN: Every year is a special year for Echoes. It is great to see our ideas and designs on paper, come to life at the festival. We have also seen our music evolve over the years, and have also seen our audiences grow.
The theme for our fourth edition, is 'The Sanctuary' where we highlight and celebrate the many endangered species from India and across the world. This theme has led us to collaborate with Nat Geo Wild and Earth Day Network, which has helped us learn more about conservation, and has truly redefined how we translate our themes each year.
The theme for the fourth edition of Echoes of Earth is 'The Sanctuary'
YSW: What is the number of audiences you are looking at this year?
RN: This year, with our theme 'The Sanctuary' and with our pre-event awareness programmes, we have been able to reach out to a bigger, newer audience. We have people flying down from across India and abroad to attend the event. This year we are expecting close to double footfalls than last year!
YSW: Whom are you partnering with this year and what are some of the special initiative you are taking up this year?
RN: Hasirudala Innovations: We have been in partnership with Hasirudala who have been with us since year one, we have been working together to make our festival a zero waste festival. With Hasirudala, we ensure that the waste generated at our festival is responsibly segregated.
U-Solar: In our endeavour to finding alternatives for clean energy, Echoes of Earth has partnered with U-Solar to power elements of the festival with clean energy. Along with our Big Tree stage which is solar powered every year, Echoes of Earth will be expanding its solar power plans to new areas at the festival.
This includes solar powered phone charging stations, a solar powered bar and more.
Hosachiguru: In collaboration with Hosachiguru, Echoes of Earth will be planting a sapling for every ticket sold this year in the outskirts of Bangalore city.
YSW: What makes the artist lineup special this year?
RN: In the music line up this year, we have Squarepusher, a pioneer of Intelligent Dance Music (IDM) with a unique audio-visual experience play at our festival for the first time in India. We also have artists like Acid Pauli playing at our event for the first time; someone who has an adventurous and aesthetic approach to downtempo techno music.
We have three stages at the festival which will be playing music simultaneously, to create a unique, musical journey for the audience.
YSW: Where do you see the festival in the coming years? Where do you want to take it?
The festival aims to use music as a platform to spread the message of a more conscious way of life
RN: We have come a long way as a festival. Our endeavour is to be carbon neutral one day while collaborating with experts and innovators, and this vision doesn’t seem too far away. The festival believes that we need more initiatives like this, not just in Bangalore, but across the country.
Our people are our strength and it is great to see more people travel from different parts to be a part of this festival to support what we are doing. We have been able to set a benchmark for other festivals and we are happy to see the industry accepting a concept like this.
