In the midst of all the other festivals happening across the country, including the recent BIG69 metal festival in Mumbai, Bengaluru is out to prove it is still India’s metal capital. Announced in January, the first edition of CultFest, which has been set up by city-based event management firm Bohemian Live, is slated to take place on April 11 at the Manpho Spectrum ground in Hebbal. CultFest will be headlined by death metal bands such as Cannibal Corpse and Suicide Silence, both from the U.S. While Cannibal Corpse has the tag of being one of the most popular, widely-heard metal bands in the world – recently surpassing selling over two million albums – they are joined by Suicide Silence, one of the new wave of American metal bands who mix the brutal, crushing style of death metal with a more groove-oriented metalcore element.
The festival’s director Amarjeet Singha says the event was in the works since October 2014, with the aim to bring artists who enjoy a cult following in the country, but have not played in India yet. While metalheads are rejoicing at the fact that there are more chances of catching their favourite metal bands, Singha says they started off with metal bands for CultFest, but the annual event isn’t restricted by genre. “We are starting off with metal but have a passionate vision to get a wide range of cult acts that have missed touring India. Many of them are those who we all have grown up listening to. It will mostly involve mainstream acts,” says Singha.
Even the Indian bands confirmed to perform so far – Abraxas from Pune and Plague Throat from Shillong – have rarely performed in Bangalore.
It’s certainly a step up for 26-year-old Singha, who is originally from Silchar. He started out organising club shows. On going from clubs to a big open air festival, Singha says, “The scale changes drastically. Open air festivals involve enormous production, artist hospitality, licenses, sound logistics, marketing, sponsorship etc., which is like 300 per cent more work and money involved than doing an indoor pub gig.” The process of putting together CultFest over the last six months has been a learning experience for his team as well. He adds, “The most valuable lesson I have learnt is the importance of planning. The rest comes off one way or the other, but if your planning is tight and good, the rest becomes easy.”
The bands are just as excited. While Cannibal Corpse has been sought after by several concert promoters in India previously, this is the first time they’ve confirmed an India appearance. Suicide Silence as well, gave a shoutout to Indian fans, saying, “Us, Cannibal Corpse, you – it’s going to be a good time. We’re looking forward to meeting a lot of you guys out there and playing.”
Singha adds that there’s much more in store for Bohemian Live and CultFest in Bengaluru. Says Singha, “We will take CultFest forward. We have some specific targets in terms of artist we want to bring down for CultFest. So if any of our potential artist works out, we will announce the second edition of CultFest, it may be this year. We will be looking to set up some indoor properties in Bangalore across all genres and also work on building an artist/tour management team. There is a lot happening this year here at Bohemian Live.”
CultFest 2015 takes place on April 11 at Manpho Spectrum Grounds. Tickets: Rs. 1850, available on bookmyshow.com
