Music with mass support

The city's biggest crowd-funded music festival returns with a bouquet of artistes

Music with mass support

Park Circus

If you log on to the official website of Control Alt Delete (CAD) — the city's biggest crowd-funded music festival — you'll find a page with a detailed summary of where the organisers spend their money. Their accounting, in other words, is as transparent as cellophane paper. And the trust they have thus built has made this event evolve from its humble origins into a roaring affair over the years.

"It's people's money; they deserve to know where it went. We also want to encourage the next generation of promoters, helping them dissect the accounts and understand how much is needed where," says Himanshu Vaswani, co-founder of 4X4 Entertainment, which hosts CAD. He adds, however, that the funds collection has been comme ci comme ça this year, though it generally picks up in the last few days. Either way, the festival offers a diverse bouquet of musical genres spread across five stages. Here's what you can expect from each of them.

On February 1 and 2, 2 pm
At Roaring Farm, Pathare Wadi, Malwani Village, Malad West.
Log on to controlaltdelete.in
Cost Pay what you want

Mumbai 95 (Hip-hop)

The hip-hop juggernaut doesn't seem to be stopping in India, as will be evident at this stage. It's where Park Circus, a take-no-prisoners rap crew from Kolkata, will make their Mumbai debut. Also watch out for BFR Soundsystem, a reggae act that's made a business out of calling a spade a spade.

Sidestand (Alternative rock)

Donn Bhat

This is where you should head if you want to roll back the years and listen to some straight-up, unfiltered live music. Some of the acts to watch out for are Blakc, Mumbai-based rock veterans; Donn Bhat + Passenger Revelator, whose live-electronic sound is such that at one moment, you are dancing as if there's no tomorrow and at the other, you are transported to a dreamy realm; and The Many Roots Ensemble, a genre-agnostic outfit with chameleon-like sonic changes.

Survive This (Metal)

Godless performs live

Don't expect mellifluous tunes or lullabies at the Survive This stage (as you might have guessed from the name). Instead, put on a black T-shirt. Raise your hand with your fingers depicting the horn symbol that looks like \m/. Head-bang as if your neck is made of rubber. And watch out for the mosh pit that will inevitably form in your vicinity, since that's the sort of reaction that bands like Godless, Amorphia, Albatross and Diarchy elicit.

Synths & Strings (Singer-songwriters)

Ankur Tewari

If the Survive This stage is chalk, then this one is cheese. The music here is going to be as far removed from metal as Leftist ideology is from the RSS. Singer-songwriters and ambient artistes are going to hold forth on stage playing hum-along tunes. Don't miss the headliner, Ankur Tewari, and other acts like National Animal and Rounak Maiti, all of whom embody the "mellifluous" sensibilities that will be absent at the Survive This stage.

Electric Jungle (Electronica)

Bandish Projekt

There was a time in the 1990s when electronic music in India was dismissed as either trance or techno. But then greater Internet penetration and technological advancements ensured that electronica became a behemoth in the 2000s that rules the musical roost these days. There is a proliferation of DJs and producers in the indie circuit, and eight of them will take over this stage, including veteran outfit Bandish Projekt, Oceantied, Corridors and EZ Riser. But make sure you put on your dancing shoes before you check them out.

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