NH7: The Happy Festival (Pune – 2013)

Happiness is quite a relative term isn’t it? For example, ice cream on Sunday makes me super happy, and some people on the other hand might detest it altogether. Well, I attended the NH7 music festival in Pune recently, and left with a bunch of happy memories. They call it the happy festival; I definitely found my moments of happiness. I just wanted to put together a small post, sort of like an ode, for this amazing confluence of artists, music, buckets, people and happy vibes that we’ve come to recognize as NH7 ! These are just some of the amazing things that these guys pulled off, that left me with a big smile plastered across my face:

• To start off with, I love the NH7 secret service mails (sshh…), that one starts receiving when you join the community. So cool! Amazing concept and I felt like I was part of some super secret covert operation!
• Secondly, hands down this has to be one of the most organized festivals I’ve ever attended. A big thank you to the organizers OML Digital for making sure everything flowed smoothly and started ON TIME! I have to mention Soundtrot and Grallo for all the help with the stay and travel arrangements. You guys made the journey a whole lot easier to plan. Seriously, what a delight when you to experience a music festival and the ticketing lines are no fuss, you’re not hassled by security unnecessarily, the gigs start and end on time and you get drops to and from the venue. Can’t thank you enough.
• Sitting on the grass, sipping on my bucket and listening to amazing live music – priceless! Going to another stage and dancing away to dub magic – indescribable. The number of stages and the variety of music genres and artists is the USP of this event, and nobody does it better than them.
• I saw a 5-6 year old girl with her parents jumping around on the grass and then I saw a 60ish year old couple jumping to the tunes of The Raghu Dixit project; they were killing it! It was such a beautiful blend of people who loved music. I smile again and again thinking about it.
• Thought you’d miss your dog when you went out of the city? This festival took care of that too – pets are allowed! Never thought I’d see this anytime soon. And how could you not smile looking at all those cuties running around!
• I loved the plastic bubble chairs. They were so comfortable, and more than that, the crowd loved throwing them around in the air during every single act! You could always see at least 3-4 of them in the air at all times.
• Indian Ocean , these guys are a legend for a reason and they performed exactly like that.
• Vishal Dadlani – you’re a freaking rockstar! Saw him perform live for the first time and WOW; couldn’t take my eyes away from the stage for even a moment.
• When Chase & Status dropped ‘That shit kray’ and ‘I can’t stop’, ooohhhhhh, the floor was on fire! What a set. And then he waved the Indian Flag too – a very proud and aww moment.
• The crowd chanting FUCK THAT SHIT when Nucleya took the stage during the last act – bloody epic!
• The grand finale – when those kids took over the stage and that guy danced his heart out, it was a beautiful moment to witness. I swear to god, I didn’t stop smiling for even one second during the entire All Stars performance.
• The Makin Bacon stall – BEST.FOOD.EVER.
• Throughout the festival I couldn’t see anyone puking their guts out or misbehaving – how rare is that! It was a pleasant change from the ones that happen in Mumbai.

Some things they could probably look at improving for next year:

• Make the wait at the Makin Bacon stall shorter – c’mon guys, we love you but the wait was just too long (40-50mins). But we still waited!
• BEER. An afternoon music festival without beer just doesn’t feel quite right. I know it’s the sponsors, but let’s get some beer for next year! Please.
• That’s all! It was a short list.

I’ll simply wrap this up by saying another big thank you to everyone who helped make this possible for the fans and for all those wonderful memories that you’ve given us. We can’t wait for next year! Below is just a short gallery of some moments captured at the festival; hope it makes you want to come next time!

Were you a part of NH7 across any of the three venues? How did you find the music, the setup and the buzz at the festival? We’d love to hear stories of your memories from this wonderful celebration of art, music, food and culture.