Hornbill Music Festival & V-Rox to be Festival Partners

The Rattle and Hum Band from Nagaland participated in the V-Rox Festival in 2017.

The Rattle and Hum Band from Nagaland participated in the V-Rox Festival in 2017.

Vishü Rita Krocha
Kohima | August 3
 

With an incredible journey of 20 years that has drawn the interest of close to a million people in the last two decades, Hornbill Music Festival has inked a historic agreement with V-Rox Festival, Vladivostok, Russia on Monday as ‘Festival Partners.’

Following the agreement, V-Rox had declared, “we are happy to announce on this day, the 3rd of August, 2020 that V-Rox Festival- Vladivostok, Russia and Hornbill Music Festival- Nagaland, India agree to be festival partners and we shall explore avenues and platforms for exchange of music, art and culture between the two festivals and countries in the days and years ahead.”

Chief Minister of Nagaland, Neiphiu Rio took to twitter to congratulate the partnership wherein he expressed, “I am happy to know that V-Rox Festival - Vladivostok, Russia and Hornbill Music Festival Nagaland, India, will be festival partners. Congratulations, and I hope the collaboration will foster bilateral interest in music, art and culture and will be enriching for both the countries” while Advisor to the Chief Minister, Abu Metha remarked that it is a wonderful piece of news amidst the gloom.

Terming it as a significant and a historic landmark, he said that “the platform of music and art will create new vistas, strengthen bonds and ensure opportunities for the youth to aspire towards their dreams.” He commented that “our rising soft power will transcend international boundaries” while expressing, “thank you, V-Rox for believing in us”.

Metha further congratulated Task Force for Music & Arts (TaFMA) and stated that “another epic journey begins, and it will surely have far reaching positive impacts in the years ahead.”

For Theja Meru, Advisor to TaFMA, “it is a historic day for two Music Festivals of two great nations.” With a long history spanning 20 years, he said that Hornbill Music Festival is among the biggest music festivals of the country. “Basing on our credibility and size, we felt that it was a good time to reach out to festivals outside Nagaland with similar visions and goals for partnerships”, he revealed on how it happened.

V-Rox, he affirmed is a very reputed Music Festival, promoting music, art and culture and with the participation of Nagaland in both their 2017 and 2018 editions, Meru highlighted that “likewise, we hosted a few of them during the 2018 Hornbill Festival.” The seed for the partnership had already been sown when TaFMA reached out to V-Rox to discuss possibilities of festival partnerships, which they were most willing and happy about during their Nagaland visit.

“This festival partnership is a long term agreement and we are very excited about the possibilities of providing a much needed world stage for the musicians and artists of the state”, he put across.

As per their Instagram update, the organizing committee of V-ROX festival has already begun to prepare for the V-Rox 2021 which will be held in May 2021 at Vladivostok. It also highlighted that “as a part of this partnership, a Russian music band selected by the V-ROX organizing committee may participate in the festival in December, 2020 – if the global epidemiological situation allows. And the musicians, artists and chefs from India will come to V-ROX in 2021.”

Mention may be made here that V-Rox previously hosted the cultural and creative community from Nagaland including DJ Ina, Chef Salangyanger Jamir and Project 72 Hours, who created a 60x30 ft wall mural of a Siberian Tiger as part of the 3-day Vladivostok Rock (V-Rox) Festival last June. The Rattle and Hum Band from Nagaland had also participated in the V-Rox festival in the year 2017.

V-Rox (www.vrox.org) is an open international culture festival, a creative laboratory of ideas from street art, music, gastronomy and sports to blockchain, crowdfunding platforms and new music streaming. The main music festival of the Free Port of Vladivostok has been held since 2013 and is attended by hundreds of artists, painters and musicians, not only from Russia, but also from all over the world such as Australia, Mongolia, Japan and the United States, with a special emphasis on the Asia-Pacific countries.