A Music Festival In Bir: 'One Of The Biggest Challenges In Organizing A Festival Here Is The Climate'

The seventh edition of Musicathon, a music festival in the mountains, will take place from April 15-16, 2022 at The Bagicha, Bir. Started back in 2019, Musicathon is a platform made especially for emerging independent artists who perform for travellers from across nationalities, in the most majestic locations of Bir, Himachal Pradesh with a stunning backdrop of the Dhauladhar range. The festival is an eco-friendly affair that comes together with the efforts of the local community, talented independent musicians, and a bunch of people driven by a mutual passion for music, poetry, and love for the Earth and travel. The first edition of the music festival in 2019 was started as an experiment of a two-day event with just twp artists and 10 attendees that is now going to witness its 7th edition. The talented artist line-up for the seventh edition of Musicathon includes names such as Rahgir, a social media sensation, Arjan Singh- an architect turned singer-songwriter from Jaipur, Ishan Nigam - an independent singer-songwriter, live performer and a youtuber, Sanchi Mannotra, a Chandigarh based singer- songwriter and many more. Gaurav Kushwaha is the brains behind all the planning, operation, and execution of the music festival. He talked to us about the music fest in the Himalayas.

Fortunately, it has been an overwhelming response with each edition. Post each edition of Musicathon, we start getting enquiries on our various social media
channels related to when is the next musicathon happening. I still remember that in the previous edition when the music festival ended, one artist who had performed with us posted a story on Instagram - "Koi Bir wapas ja raha hai kya? Mai apna dil wahi chod aaya hoon".

Everyone has a different meaning for Musicathon. We did a social experiment with the audience in the last edition that ‘Explain Musicathon in one word’. We came up with so many interesting answers such as Home, Sukoon and more that made us feel proud. Musicathon has been changing the attendees Playlist and
their music tastes by introducing them to independent artists.

One of the most interesting anecdotes was to see the biggest jump of the audience from 120 in the second edition to the 440 people in the 3rd edition and attendance by like-minded people who enjoys good music. We have witnessed musicians forming a band at our festival. Another interesting story was about getting our first sponsor - Roposo. We were looking for sponsors when I texted my friend who was earlier working with Instagram. She told me that she has switched from Instagram to Roposo now. I tweaked my question and asked her ‘’Does Roposo sponsor music festival"? Within seven days, we were able to have them on-board with us.

One of the biggest challenges in organizing a festival here is the climate. There is a track record that whenever Musicathon happens then there's a chance of rain. Whether it is summer, winter, spring, there's always a chance that it rains. Rain god is always happy with us every time that whenever there is a
schedule of performances the rain stops, and the show continues smoothly. Sometimes getting a good tech rider required by the artists become a challenge
as we have to get it either from Chandigarh or Delhi. Everything is DIY in this festival, and we have to plan everything in a way that the harsh weather doesn't
affect the festival.

Bir is a majestic place; the vibe and aura of it is non matchable with any of the mountain valleys. One more reason for choosing the Bir is transportation. If you
go by the psychology of a traveller, people want to go to places where they can reach in less time and hassle-free. So, Bir is a perfect place that is well-connected. There is a direct Volvo comfortable bus to reach directly to Bir from Delhi/ Chandigarh, if you are coming from far away then you can take to flight to
Dharamshala and then Bir is just 1.5 hours away. Further, Bir is also famous for paragliding that attracts a lot of young and adventurous crowd.

We at Musicathon don't plan for more than the next 6 months. After this edition, we will be travelling across smaller parts of India to find hidden artists and provide them a platform by helping them create the songs for them from scratch. We will be releasing it to make the artist's reach to wider audience. Hopefully, in October we will witness the next edition of Musicathon. We have a few more projects that we are working on that are still at a planning stage.