Land at this terminal

An electronic music festival returns this weekend in a bigger and better avatar, spread across multiple venues

Land at this terminal

Helena Hauff, who will headline the festival

When Terminal 1 debuted last year, the landscape for venues for such electronic music festivals in Mumbai was as barren as Jeff Bezoz's scalp is of strands of hair. Famous Studios was pretty much the only place that hosted raves in the city. The Great Eastern Mills hadn’t yet become a regular address for similar parties. And the revamped AntiSocial still hadn’t opened its doors for patrons in their dancing shoes.

But all that’s changed as the fest returns for its second edition this weekend. The Great Eastern has become a coveted spot for electronica in the intervening period, with over half a dozen gigs. A place like The Council has given Bandra its only standalone nightclub. And the itinerary at AntiSocial is so packed with DJs every week that you’d probably go deaf if you were to listen to each and every one of them.

That’s why Jai Anand — founder of Milkman, the music events firm that organises Terminal 1 — decided to spice things up and spread this edition over three days and across multiple venues. He says, “I feel that if you stick to one place, you are stuck to just one vibe, like a dark warehouse one. Having three venues allows us to experiment with the line-up. And the audience also feels more like they are part of a festival since they travel across the city to catch different types of music.”

Guide
Terminal 1 being held at Famous Studios last year

So, spend day one at AntiSocial where Berlin-based DJ Luca Lozano will spin club tracks suited to the location’s stripped-down environs. Head the next day to Famous Studios — the fest’s spiritual home — where German DJ Helena Hauff returns with her brand of minimal techno. And take the lift up to Asilo to spend the final evening at a rooftop bar in a Lower Parel five-star to listen to Henry Wu, whose jazz-flavoured house tunes will provide a breather from the thumping beats on the two preceding days.

It’s in fact a packed line-up with a host of other international and homegrown talent on the bill. And the multiplicity of venues bodes well for a city that was starved of them till recently. “It’s created a whole new audience due to the sheer number of gigs that are taking place,” Anand says, pointing out how — in the space of just a year — Mumbai has started partying to electronic music as if there is no tomorrow. And that, in our books, can only be a good thing.

ON February 28 to March 1, 5 pm to 1 am
AT AntiSocial, Lower Parel (day one); Famous Studios, Mahalaxmi (day two); Asilo, St Regis Mumbai, Lower Parel.
Log on to skillboxes.com
Cost Rs 800 to Rs 3,000

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