Heavy metal music fest back with seventh edition

BENGALURU: Here’s a shout-out to all metal music lovers in the city. G-Shock Bangalore Open Air is back with its seventh edition with a diverse line-up of artistes such as American thrash legends Overkill, New York death metal stalwarts, Immolation, French post-rock luminaries, Alcest, India’s old-school metal veterans, Kryptos and Middle Eastern heavyweights, Nervecell.

Salman U Syed, the founder of the festival, says that there aren’t many music festivals dedicated only to rock and heavy metal. Inspired by Germany’s Wacken Open Air Festival, Salman decided to start a similar one here in India. “I was overwhelmed at the magnitude of the festival and wondered why something on these lines had not been tried in India. I spoke to the organisers of the show in 2011 and decided to have a festival here. We didn’t get a sponsor since the idea was new. As I did not want to give up on it, a month before the fest, my mother said she’d sponsor. I remembered how Thomas Jensen, founder of Wacken festival, lived in a caravan for a year as he could not find sponsors initially,” he says.

Two years later, his folks backed out and asked him to get a ‘real job’. He decided to try crowdfunding the next edition and raised ten per cent of the entire budget through 162 funders. “I thought I’d organise the event on a small scale to keep the spirit of heavy metal music alive. We uploaded a video on YouTube. By now, I had learned how to think as a businessman, manage accounts and organise such events. By 2015, we had built a reputation and got our first sponsor for the festival,” he adds.

The sixth- edition that happened last year had four brands supporting the event and an audience of 6,000 people,” he says. It’s a challenge to find sponsors for such events. “They ask me to get bands such as Cold Play if we need brands to sponsor. But they do not realise that there is an audience for rock and metal music. They are niche but this will only help them with more visibility for their brands. There’s a myth about the heavy and rock metal scene. Most people think it is about drugs but this pre-conceived notion is changing now. Trust me, heavy metal music lovers would be the most friendly people you would meet,” he says.

The festival is already receiving great responses, he says. “We are getting enquiries from Phillippines too as for this edition, we have bands such as Overkill that haven’t performed in Asia previously. This is the only festival in Bengaluru that is being hosted for so long and the only heavy metal music fest in India. Earlier, I used to e-mail bands and their managers asking if they would be interested in participating in our festival and now, they send me e-mails saying they’d like to participate,” he says.

It’s a youth-centric fest that also features a contest pan India. The best band shortlisted will get to go perform at Wacken Open Air festival in Germany. This edition also marks the 20th anniversary of Kryptos. Salman was also part of the band earlier and they had done an opening for the popular band, Iron Maiden. “It’s my dream to get the band to perform here sometimes for the festival,” he says.

The 7th edition of the festival is all set to take place on July 7 at Aadya Farms, Yelahanka.