The crashing of waves on the rocks at the Promenade beach has been regularly drowned by thunderous drumbeats and throaty cheers that follow every performance by Indian and Francophone bands that have been playing to beach-goers, after sundown, for the past week.
BandsThe Music Alliance Extravaganza lined up 10 bands on five evenings. The music fest kickstarted the three month long Indo-French Festival 2014, coinciding with 125 years of the Alliance Francaise Pondichery.
The festival closed with a melange of Bollywood, Tamil and western music, played out by Live Banned, a band with parody has its forte. Earlier singer Naila performed pop with a distinct touche of Caribbean and World Music influence.
Festival openingElectrifying beats by Janski Beeeats and Human Brigade opened the festival on Thursday.
Metal with a soul by Chrome O’Soul and gripping hip-hop by Rit from Reunion Islands, followd.
Bangalore based acoustic rock band Allegro Fudge rocked the weekend with upbeat music that criss-crossed genres including blues, country, jazz, Celtic and classical music.
Project Yuj, which went down well with the weekend crowd, introduced an improvisational touch with fusing traditional and modern styles.
The Creole component in the festival that married Indian and French way of playing music was ushered in by artist Mangloo.
The festival being open to all, both tourists and beach regulars had something extra to their evening weekend. The festival is organized by the Department of Tourism and Navayuga Consultancy, along with the Alliance.
