It’s the Season for Music

It seems to be the season for festivals here in India.  Mumbai Film Festival has just finished and everywhere I turn there seems to be another new festival to attend.

One thing I did a lot of in my past life (in Australia) was see a lot of music and go to music festivals.  From going to a local pub to see an acoustic show, to weekend long camping festivals with a plethora of great bands, the summer was always packed with great tunes.  There was one summer where two girlfriends and I literally followed this band around. Even after my friends started multiplying, we would go to weekend festivals and just take the kids camping with us. There were some great festivals, like Golden Plains and Meredith Music Festival. It was always great fun.

Sadly, I haven’t seen any live music since I moved to India (I don’t think the band at Navratri counts!).

I am not sure why, I guess the reasons are two-fold.  I am still just starting to make friends, so don’t have a wide social group to go out with, and the only time I have been settled in one place it has been monsoon.  But now, it looks like that’s all changing.  I know more people of the same ilk, and there is certainly a much more pleasant temperature in the air.

Recently I have been invited along to a few different music events which is really exciting.  One I unfortunately can’t go to is Ragasthan which is held next weekend in Rajasthan.  I would love to go, but my parents arrive in Mumbai next week and I am pretty sure they wouldn’t appreciate me leaving them stranded at the airport to attend a music festival and I am looking forward to seeing them so much after so long, I can’t imagine not picking them up from the airport anyway (no doubt there will be further posts about my parent’s visits in the weeks to come).

I have also been invited to see Guns N Roses when they play in 3 shows in India in December.  Whilst it would be great to do a road trip and see them in Bangalore (December 7th) or Delhi (on the 12th), I have decided to stay close to home and see them here in Mumbai (on December 9th).

They are a band I have always wanted to see live as they have a reputation for putting on a fantastic show. So this was one offer I just couldn’t turn down.  They played Melbourne back in the early 1990’s (yes I am really that old), and I missed out on seeing them, but have never forgotten the rave reviews.  I was talking to a friend about it last week, who did see them play Calder Park in Melbourne. Her recollection was so vivid, even after all these years, it was amazing.

Apparently the band has committed to playing for three hours…. I can feel a hoarse throat coming up.  After all, who hasn’t jumped up and down on the coach pretending they were playing this guitar riff:

Its time for me to get my groove back and perhaps dust off a leather head band!