The BIG BANG! "Festival Of Love" was held at Haflong, Cultural Institute Hall on the 6th of March,2016. The event was headlined by Alobo Naga and The Band from Nagaland, they had the crowd going crazy from the minute they set foot on stage. People sang along in harmony to their popular songs “ All We Have Is Now” and “Painted Dreams”. ANTB is hugely popular in the town of Haflong and theirs was a highly anticipated performance.Alobo Naga shared about peace, love & the uniqueness of the northeastern between the songs, and asked all the community living on Haflong to accept one another irrespective of tribes etc. & come & live as one.
Founded by husband and wife entrepreneur duo Daniel Langthasa and AvantikaHaflongbar under the banner North East Travels, it was a self funded event aimed to promote the arts in small towns of North East India. A festival truly by the artists, for the artists and of the artists. The event featured various musical acts from NE India and painters and fashion designers. An Ethnic clothing and accesories brand ROOHI from Haflong was also launched at the festival.AkhuChingangbam of the Imphal Talkies and Dossers Urge from Shillong were the other headliners. Akhu performed songs like "Maria" and "Mr. President Is Coming". Other musical acts from Haflongviz ECHO, Maestro, Soultree, Soundwave School of Music, The Disciples, Big Mouth Small Foot, Kyelci James, Vencen, Steven and Thompo, Reene, Sandy Gorlosa, Drussili, Grazila also performed at the festival.
An art exhibition by award winning artists LakheswerBodo and Addie Lang was also on display. A food carnival with mouth smacking ethnic cuisine and delicious rice beer called “Judima” was also served at the festival. Haflong, the only hill station of Assam has a bitter past of ethnic clashes among different tribes and the event’s aim to promote love, harmony, unity among all tribes and religion was clearly on display as young people from various communities were seen celebrating music and art and dancing together to the beats from artists who came from different parts of North East India themselves. The BiG BANG! has bigger plans to travel to different towns of NE India in the near future and spread the message of Love.
