Nagaland’s Hornbill Music Festival partners with V-Rox Russia 

Nagaland Chief Minister, Neiphiu Rio took to Twitter to announce the partnership on August 3. (@Neiphiu_Rio / Twitter)

Nagaland Chief Minister, Neiphiu Rio took to Twitter to announce the partnership on August 3. (@Neiphiu_Rio / Twitter)

Morung Express News 
Dimapur | August 3 

The Hornbill Music Festival Nagaland has found a new ‘long distance’ partner, far-off in the east, with the announcement of collaboration with V-Rox Festival - Vladivostok, Russia.

Nagaland Chief Minister, Neiphiu Rio took to Twitter to announce the partnership on August 3.

 “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” he tweeted. 

Announcing the partnership with the Indian Hornbill Music Festival the V-Rox Organizing Committee in a statement on its website informed: “We are pleased to introduce you a new partner from India - Hornbill Music Festival, which has been held since 2000 in the Indian state of Nagaland,” 

The committee, it informed, has begun preparations for the V-ROX-2021 festival, which will be held in May 2021 in Vladivostok, a major port city in Russia near the borders with China and North Korea.

As part of this partnership, Russian group selected by the V-ROX organizing committee “may travel to India in December to take part in the festival - if the global epidemiological situation allows it,” it said. 

Musicians, artists and chefs from India will come to V-ROX 2021, it added. 

Meanwhile, Advisor to Task Force for Music & Arts (TaFMA) Nagaland, Theja Meru said he ‘delighted’ that the Hornbill Music Festival has become an official partner of the V-ROX Festival.

"We are truly proud of this partnership, because this is an important step towards establishing close cooperation in the field of culture and art between our countries, and for artists - an opportunity to show themselves on the world stage," he was quoted as saying in the statement. 

Artists from Nagaland have had the privilege of performing twice already at the festival, he informed. 

The committee informed that in 2019, V-ROX already hosted a whole "creative troop" from Nagaland, including INA DJ, chef Salangyanger Jamir and a team of artists "Project 72 Hours, who painted graffiti depicting the Amur tiger in the Twin Square in the centre of Vladivostok.

 In 2017, the Rattle and Hum Band, also from Nagaland, took part in the V-ROX festival, it added. 

“A historic day for two Music Festivals of two Great Nations,” the official Twitter handle of the Task Force for Music & Arts (TaFMA) Government of Nagaland, India, also posted sharing Rio’s tweet. 


What is V-ROX Festival?
V-ROX 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, according to its organiser. 

The main music festival of the Free Port of Vladivostok has been held since 2013 and attended by attended by hundreds of artists, painters and musicians, not only from Russia, but also from all over the world - from Australia and Mongolia to Japan and the United States, with a special emphasis on the Asia-Pacific countries, it said. 

With the motto "Open Art!," year to year all V-ROX events - concerts, master classes, lectures and exhibitions - are free for the public, it added on its website. 

Every year, in 3 days, about 100,000 people attend festival concerts and events. V-ROX live broadcasts, it added, are streamed on the YouTube channel www.youtube.com/vroxonline.