Kerala to host first international Indie music festival' from Nov 9

Kerala's first international Indie music festival will be held from November 9 to 13 at the Kerala Arts and Crafts Village at Kovalam near here. Along with seven leading bands and singers from abroad, 14 leading bands from India will also perform during the five-day festival. The International Indie Music Festival (IIMF) is being conducted in association with Lazie Indie Magazine, an international publication on Indie music, the organisers said here at a press conference.

In Indie music, independent music bands would compose their own songs, record music and perform with well-equipped instruments, sound and light systems.

IIMF is the country's first and foremost festival of its kind and it also marks the beginning of Kerala's annual music festival, which will be like the international film festival (IFFK) and theatre festival (ITFOK).

Bands and singers like rock music legend Eric Clapton's nephew Wil Johns from the UK, popular American hard rock singer Sami Chohfi, another British band Rane, Lyia Meta from Malaysia, Anslom from Papua New Guinea, Rudra from Singapore and Roc Flowers from Italy are expected to participate in the festival.

Participating Indian bands include Mumbai's Sherise, RCliff, When Chai Met Toast, Harish Sivaramakrishnan's Agam, Skreen 6, Sithara Krishnakumar's Project Malabaricus, Oorali, Job Kurian, Chaos, Lazie J, Chandana Rajesh, Thamarassery Churam, Inner Sanctum and Devan Ekambaram, the organisers said.

As many as 21 bands would participate in total and there would be four to five performances per day. The festival would also provide an opportunity for Indian artists to get to know about the leading singers across the world, play instruments with them and thereby rise to the global level.

T U Sreeprasad, COO of Kerala Arts and Crafts Village, said that this music culture, which is popular all over the world, is in its infancy in India.

IIMF is designed to nurture it and impart international standards which can be very beneficial for tourism development, cultural diversification and entertainment industry, he said.

Making such an international festival an annual calendar event will further elevate Kerala's status on the tourism map, said Jay, CEO of Lazie Indie Magazine.

Crafts Village Business Development Manager N Satish Kumar and Manoj of Lazie Indie Magazine also attended the press conference.