Ziro Music Festival 2023

Ziro Music Festival 2023

The Ziro valley is the home to Apatani tribe. The Apatani tribe is famous for their hospitality and their love for music. The Ziro Music Festival gives an outlet to this penchant for music and the desire to have an organised music festival. The festival draws music lovers from distant parts of the country. It is an outdoor festival which is celebrated with a lot of energy and enthusiasm. Apart from being a fertile opportunity to showcase the talents and music of North East, the festival also helps to promote tourism in the state. National and international artists like Lee Ranaldo, Steve Shelley, Louw Majaw, Sha'air n Func, Indus Creed, Peter Cat Recording Co, Menwhopause, Guru Rewben Mashangva, and Barmer Boys have been a part of the festival. Along with a fantastic musical treat for four days, the audience also gets accommodation facility in camps near the venue keeping them near their favourite artists and sessions.

The Apatani tribe of the Ziro Valley are known for their close affinity with nature and respect for the environment. Imbibing this wisdom, the festival is designed around sustainable principles that the community has been practising for generations. The fest has, therefore, always leaned towards being green, capping visitors to 10,000, banning single-use plastic, and being extremely conscious about its carbon footprint in this ecologically sensitive zone.

The organisers use repurposed bamboo, locally and abundantly grown, along with oak and pine wood for the handcrafted structures, including the stages. This is combined with upcycled cloth buntings and bamboo light fixtures for décor. Most of the material used to construct the stages is recycled from the previous editions of the fest, including the flattened bamboo, Yamio, which is woven to make the walls. The signages, too, are crafted from reclaimed wood and done up with eco-friendly paint to reduce plastic pollution from flex hoardings.

Ziro Festival puts up waste segregation pits and distributes biodegradable garbage bags for revellers to dispose of waste. They also organise waste-collection drives with its partners and local volunteers, from women and youth associations, to keep the venue clean at all times. And when the festival winds up, they make sure that the spaces are back to their naturally beautiful self.

Where is Ziro Music Festival Celebrated?

Ziro is a town in the Lower Subansiri district in Arunachal Pradesh. The picturesque beauty of the city surrounded by majestic mountains is spellbinding. The welcoming and warm Apatani tribe, the splendid scenery, the charming villages, rivers, rice fields, and landscapes set Ziro Valley apart. It has been listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO lately.

This year, festival-goers will experience a kaleidoscope of sounds, rhythms, and performances across three captivating stages: The Danyi (Sun) Stage, Pwlo (Moon) Stage, and the all-new Takvr (Star) Stage dedicated to electronic music. Apart from these, the Popi Sarmiñ Creative Space will also host a variety of community engagement initiatives.

Artist line-up Ziro Music Festival 2023

Danyi (Sun) Stage

Danyi (Sun) Stage's artist lineup includes classical music performers such as Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, Indian Hindustani classical Jal Tarang artist Shashikala Dani, noted Carnatic flautist Sikkil Mala Chandrasekar, and Joydeep Mukherjee, among others. Popular Indian singer Mohit Chauhan and popular Arunachali singer Chorun Mugli are also set to take the stage by storm.

The artist lineup for Internationally acclaimed artists includes Indonesian troubadour Ary Juliyant, South African guitarist Guy Buttery, and the sensational folk duo Puuluup from Estonia.

Pwlo (Moon) Stage

Pwlo (Moon) Stage's artist lineup includes Farhan Akhtar’s band Farhan Echoes, Arunachali indie pop sensation Taba Chake, popular rapper MC Altaf, and returning international artists including rock legend Lee Ranaldo and multi award winners Antikvariniai Kašpirovskio Dantys from Lithuania.

The lineup also includes Australian punk rockers Mannequin Death Squad fresh off their UK tour, the inimitable Swedish act – The Boo Boo Bama Orchestra at the tail end of their summer tour, Indian music producer and commercial success Komorebi, and Chaar Diwaari who has been shaking up the Delhi underground scene, and many more.

Takvr Stage

The Takvr Stage is a new addition curated by India’s leading electronic artist, Sapta aka Marti Bharath. It will feature an exceptional lineup of leading DJs and music producers from across the globe.

The lineup includes a host of homegrown talents like Kissnuka aka Anushka Manchanda, Nagaland’s premier DJ and producer Ina, Deep Brown, Smokey Sound and Unnayana among others.

International acts include the well-known Angata (Israel), Sebastian Fuchs (Germany) and Lithuanian producer Leon Somov who returns to Ziro this year. Prepare to dance the night away in this immersive electronic playground.

Besides the music, you get a chance to explore the traditional arts and crafts, engage in community learning workshops and immerse yourself in the rich culture of the Apatani tribe. Look out for painting and crafts workshops, yoga, meditation, dance and movement sessions, and learn how to play the indigenous Apatani flute (elu) made from paddy straw. You could also participate in Signature Masterclasses, which will include the likes of celebrity mixologist Yangdup Lama fashioning cocktails out of local ingredients.

Outside of the festival, sign up for a guided tour of an Apatani village, which would include an ethnic meal, or indulge in a winery tour of Naara-Aaba in Hong village, which is India’s first brand of kiwi wine (featured on Season 2 of Shark Tank India). There are several majestic waterfalls and paddy-fish farms you can visit. Some 6km from Ziro’s main market Hapoli is the Shri Sidheshwar Nath Temple, built around the world’s tallest, naturally formed Shivling. Photographers love the view from the Kile Pakho ridge, with a plateau on one side and the snow-clad Himalayan range, Nyime Pembu, on the other. If you’re a wildlife enthusiast, head to the Talley Valley Wildlife Sanctuary to try and spot clouded leopards, black giant squirrels, the Indian muntjac, or the Asian palm civet. Birders have a chance to spot the black eagle, collared owlet, golden-breasted fulvetta, and many other species here.

Before you travel, Indians need an Inner Line Permit from Arunachal Tourism’s dedicated site, arunachalilp.com; a 14-day e-permit costs Rs100. NRIs, OCI-holders and foreign nationals require a Protected Area Permit from the Foreign Regional Registration Office.

What to eat and drink at Ziro

The festival ground has plenty of stalls that sell everything from fries and burgers to pasta. But while you’re in Arunachal Pradesh, you’ll want to sample the local fare, much of which is centred around the use of bamboo, fermentation, boiling and steaming. Vegetarians can try bamboo shoots with rice, or rely on universal staples such as rice and dal with locally grown vegetables. Ziro residents are happy to customise dishes to suit a vegetarian or vegan diet.

Fish is a popular item on the Apatani menu, as they practise a unique blend of rice farming and aquaculture called paddy-fish cultivation. If you eat meat, then you can try the Apatani delicacies of roasted and boiled pork in bamboo stem, beef stew or roast. Roasted grasshoppers make for a great snack on the go. The local drink is Apong, brewed from rice or millets. It’s called beer but is more like wine. They also have delicious apple or kiwi wine. Incidentally, the state is India’s largest producer of kiwis, and the entire production is certified organic as the Apatani don’t use any chemical fertilisers and pesticides in their farming.