For Darjeeling, the last holiday season of 2023 was a rocking one, with the hills shaking to the beats of MELOtea Fest. An initiative of Darjeeling SP, Praween Prakash, a 2014-batch IPS officer of West Bengal cadre, the unique festival was a confluence of rock music, tea culture, local traditions, and marathon, brought together under one umbrella.
Held during Christmas, the time holiday makers make a beeline for the hill station, the fest centred around two local indulgences the place is famous for – music and tea.
Speaking to Indian Masterminds, Mr. Praween Prakash, outlined the fest in detail.
THE FESTIVAL
There was a time Darjeeling was known for rock music. Local rock bands used to belt out their own songs as well as croon the numbers of their favourite icons. The musically conscious people of the town, known for its world class boarding schools housed in beautiful colonial buildings, would have lyrics of international hits on their lips, and also in their fingertips that would bring the words to life in a guitar. However, over time, this music culture had begun to fade.
“To revive the rock music culture, we organised this fest. And, we incorporated another thing this place is famous for – Darjeeling tea – into it,” Mr. Prakash said.
That’s how the fest got its name, ‘MELOtea’, inspired by melody and tea.
ORGANISED BY DARJEELING POLICE
It was organised entirely by the Darjeeling Police with help from the Government of West Bengal and the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration. Besides music and tea, other local elements were also thrown in to add variety and flavours to the 3-day extravaganza, like an orange festival, traditional dress fashion show, orchid exhibition, and art and craft stalls at the popular open town square called Chowrasta.
There were also many tea promotion events, apart from the tea stalls that sold freshly brewed Darjeeling tea, that gave visitors glimpses of the tea industry and tea culture in the hilly district.
“From this year, we also included the annual Darjeeling Hill Marathon in this fest. The 10th edition of this run was held on December 24,” Mr. Prakash said.
This famous running event – the biggest in the region – attracts international runners as well, and carried a total prize money of Rs. 9.8 lakh year, this year.
“The marathon focussed on de-addiction theme, this time, as we want to make the region drugs free. Hence, we gave the tagline – “Run the race, defeat the chase,” said Mr. Prakash.
MUSIC ROCKED
Before the running event, 12 bands that came from Nepal, Calcutta, Shillong, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Darjeeling performed at the fest on December 22 and 23. These bands had been selected from among 80 band entries. They are Ekagrah from Nepal, Ausomapto from Kolkata, Halo Scale from Darjeeling, ECC from Mirik, Acube from Kurseong, Hamartia from Shillong, Ambush from Assam, Mana from Sikkim, Chromatic from Darjeeling, Nchanter from Uttarakhand, Naughty Prophet from Darjeeling, and Guns from Country Side, Sikkim.
The prize money was Rs. 10 lakh. There was also a special award for the best guitarist in memory of late Sonam Sherpa, a guitarist of the famous Indian band Parikrama, who was from Kalimpong and had passed away in 2020. In fact, the Parikrama band performed in the fest and also judged the band competition, paying tribute to their former band member.
Darjeeling SP, Praween Prakash, who is a guitarist himself, also played with one of the local bands.
He summed up the fest by saying, “I wanted to launch a fest in Darjeeling on the lines of the Hornbill Festival of Nagaland. With MELOtea, our effort was to promote the culture, music, and tradition of the place. Hence, we had given the tagline- ‘tea, tunes, strings’. We just got a month’s time to organise it, so couldn’t publicize it much. But, seeing the overwhelming response, we now plan to make it an annual event.”
