Started in May 2009 by a group of 60 musicians at The Lake Resort Naukuchiatal in Uttarakhand, the Escape Festival of Arts & Music has grown to become one of India’s foremost art, music and camping festival. The Escape Festival of Arts & Music has established itself over the past five years, drawing both international and national audiences, most of which are repeat visitors. “We started with 60 people and now we have grown to over 4000 in the 2013 edition. We have had a large number of repeat audiences who brought in new audiences with them which indicated that the Escape experience was something they enjoyed and looked at coming back to. I would also attribute this growth to the fact that music festivals in India have slowly come of age,” states Lalrinawma Tochhawng, festival director, Escape Festival of Arts & Music.
An initiative by Potheads, a community of artists, the Escape Festival of Arts & Music features bands, artists, photographers, writers, painters, graffiti artists, performance artists, tattoo artists and potters. Furthermore, the festival also includes adventure sports, a festival camp and a flea market at the venue. “The strength and USP of the Escape Festival of Arts & Music is that it cuts across all age groups and artistic genre,” boasts Tochhawng adding that, the festival from the beginning had been attracting international audiences and artists, but in the last few editions there had been additions of more artistic disciplines such installation art, graffiti, pottery, painting, photography and independent films.
Spread over few days, the music and dance events at the festival are divided between two stages – the Soul Garden Stage and the Magic Forest Stage. Located against the backdrop of Naukuchiatal, the Soul Garden Stage hosts musical events and feature artists from different musical genres like jazz, blues, folk, Sufi and rock music throughout India. Whereas the Magic Forest Stage is an electronic dance music (EDM) stage providing lights and visuals and featuring performances by national and international artists from the EDM sub-genres of chill, dub-step, drum ‘n’ bass and Psytrance music. Photography, painting, pottery, graffiti and other art forms are hosted at the festival through outdoor exhibitions, live painting, workshops and participation programmes. Another highlight is the film festival that holds screening of independently produced documentaries by national and international filmmakers.
Way forward
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Lalrinawma Tochhawng
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Over the years, the festival with its growing popularity has been attracting interested corporate investors. “After having successfully run the festival for the last five years with minimum or no support from corporate sponsors, there has been an advent of corporate sponsors who are looking at long term associations with the festival. This would help to improve the reach and attract more domestic and international tourists,” opines Tochhawng. However, his future focus for the festival would not only be expanding its reach and increasing its popularity but also giving a sustainable livelihood to the people of Naukuchiatal. “Our future plan is to create an international standard festival for people who share a common love for the art and music, to present a thematic showcase of gifted Indian and international artists in music, painting, photography, pottery and numerous other forms of creative expression and to develop a sustainable eco system that would benefit and facilitate economic growth and development for both the escape festival and people of the region,” he asserts.
As for growth of music and art tourism in India, Tochhawng asserts that there should be more governmental support. “Building of more venues for public performances, special tax exemptions and rebates for live shows, are some of the initiatives that the government should take to develop such festivals in India,” he states.
(As told to Rituparna Chatterjee)
