.FEST offers city bands a platform to showcase their talent

Bhubaneswar: Day 11 of .FEST (Bhubaneswar City Festival) continued to drawaudiences in thousands whowere left amazed by the performances at the festival.Today visitors to the festival witnessed a thrilling competition between local school and non-school rock bands in Bhubaneswar Bandwidth – Drumming Up for Glory. An initiative organized by Bhubaneswar Development Authority and Odisha Tourism, the evening also saw other popular artistes take the stage. This included performances by Odia singer, Asima Panda, a highly entertaining comedy set by Comedy Highway and an electrifying show by Vighnanz, a wildly popular fusion rock band group.
Taking the inclusiveness of the .FEST to another level, the city authorities today included 254 members of self-help-groups (SHGs) from across the city and the members enjoyed both the music eventof the evening as well as the various cuisines at the International Food Festival.One of the SHG members Rajalaxmi Jena said “the .FEST has become an iconic event of the city and after the announcement that it would be held every year, we can now encounter many stars from music and entertainment sector in Bhubaneswar. I would thank the organisers to make us a part of this mega event.’’
The evening entertainment began with an opening act byAsima Panda who sang some of her popular Odia numbers. The most awaited moment of the event arrived with the rock band competitionBhubaneswar Bandwidth – Drumming Up for Glory. A total of 120 artists and 16 rock bands had participated at an audition that was held on 3rd December 2018 at Kims Auditorium, among which six schools and non-schools were selected as finalists for the grand finale tonight. Those rock bands selected from schools included DPS Kalinga, Sai International School and DAV Pokhariput. The non-school participants were Chimera, Outdoor and One Week’s Notice.
Each of these bandswere appointed a mentor who were guiding them throughout the competition. G. Durga Prasad, lead singer of Vighnanz rock band mentored DPS Kalinga. He has many musical hits on his YouTube channel, 3 of which have crossed millions of views. He also has 2 music videos with T-series to his credit. Zubin, the Drummer of Vighnanz, having performed at over 500 live shows is touted as the most stylish and powerful drummer in Odisha. He mentored Sai International School. Hrishi the Bassist of Vighnanz, and music programmer who will soon make his musical debut in Bollywood, mentored DAV Pokhariput. He has also performed in over 1000 live shows. Subhasish who mentored Outdoor band is the Percussionist of Vighnanz. He is also a veteran at live shows having performed at over 500. One Week’s Notice and Chimera band were mentored by Govindch. Jena and PriyadarshiDebashis respectively. Govind is a popular drummer, music composer and a trained tabla player. Priyadarshi is a famous singer having sung playback in many Odia movies.
Comedy Highway performed a rib-tickling set in between the rock band acts. Their jokes were witty as they made unique observations around the on-going Odisha Men’s Hockey World Cup 2018 and had the audience cracking up. The evening came to a close with a brilliant set by Vighnanz rock band. They sang many popular Bollywood numbers like SamneYehKaunAaya, Dil Se, Wake Me Up, Rock On, JhoomJhoom Baba, to name a few and had the audience singing along.
The 3 judges for the evening, famous music directors Om Prakash Mohanty and Agni Mitra and veteran bass guitarist Ricky North, were left impressed by all the performances and at the display of immense talent from such a young group of people. They declared DPS Kalinga as winners of the school band and One Week’s Notice as winners from the non-school bands.They will be presented an award at the grand finale of .FESTon the 16th of December by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy.
Tomorrow, .FEST will showcase electrifying performances by Krishna Beura and Prince Dance Group titled – Chak De Odisha
The .FEST is taking place in Bhubaneswar from 1st December to 16th December, 2018. Find out more at www.bhubaneswar.me