Music festival business still has miles to go before it turns sustainable
And, environmental destruction was, ironically, one of the issues that the music festival, boasting names like Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Joe Cocker, sought to bring attention to.
Cut to the picturesque Ziro valley of Arunachal Pradesh, where each day of the Ziro music festival (which had its 10th edition from Sept 28 to Oct 1 this year) starts on a pristine note. It is a melange of local tribes, visitors from near and far away, and the endearing cattle obliviously grazing amid all the hustle bustle.
They set stage for the likes of Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, Gautam Das Baul, Sikkil Mala Chandrasekhar, and Run Monday Run, to captivate one and all with their melodic renditions in an open-air setting, surrounded by golden fields of rice adding to the scenic beauty.
As a slight nip fills the air, the danyi stage (meaning sun in the local Apatani tribe) gives way to the pwlo stage (meaning moon) for Farhan Akhtar, Mohit Chauhan, and Taba Chake to ply their trade.
The crowds swell and so do the discards on the ground. That’s a battle the music festival, billed as an eco-friendly and sustainable event, has been fighting for the better part of a decade.
With environmental consciousness, recycling, and repurposing coming naturally to the traditional inhabitants of Ziro, initially sustainability posed no challenge for the festival organisers and the local administration.
The Apatanis give so much importance to each mere morsel that Aji, an elderly woman in Michi village of Ziro, ensures every single fallen grain of rice is picked up before anyone crosses the porch. “We don’t even let the kitchen ash go to waste,” she says.
