Un, dos, tres

Mini fests at the Great Indian October Fest 2009, are going to rock you at the three-day affair with music, shopping, art, games and food festivals

Mini fests at the Great Indian October Fest 2009, are going to rock you at the three-day affair with music, shopping, art, games and food festivals

It is going to be one zany weekend at the Great Indian October Fest 2009. Watch out for music fest, shop at the flea market, automobile beauties, art fest with seven painters, four cartoonists and five sculptors strutting their talents, a gamut of games, loads of beer to guzzle on paired with grub. It is like reliving Munich right here in Bangalore.

If music be the food of love
20 bands from across India and UK will rock you on two different stages with a mix of jazz, heavy metal, reggae, funk, Hindi, Kannada, international acts and Indian Rock.

Skindred, an international four-piece Reggae band from UK will open the fest. Junkyard Groove, a Chennai-based band, will see Ameeth Thomas, Siddharth Srinivasan and Craig Maxworth get together with their Indian rock and roll act.

Mother Jane, a variant of Mary Jane underlines the message, "Music is the finest drug, stay with it". Catch Suraj on the vocals, John on the drums and Biju strumming on the guitars, as this band heats up the music scene.

There's also a Bollywood addition this year, with KK rocking on Saturday.

Earthy yet vibrant, Raghu Dixit's intense Indo-World-Folk-Rock will take you on a ride this Sunday. Bangalore's folk singer, who sports colourful and funky lungis, will entice you with his enchanting and simple lyrics and music.u00a0

Indian Ocean, with four albums to their credit, Desert Rain, Kandisa, Jhini, Black Friday and Indian Ocean, will see Susmit Sen on guitar and vocals, Asheem Chakravarthy on tabla, tarang, percussion and vocals, Rahul Ram on bass guitar and vocals and Amit Kilam on drums, gabgubi and percussions.

DJs set to rock the three-day October fest

Inner Sanctum, a two-year old technical thrash and death metal outfit is our city's dose to heavy metal rock lovers.

Ministry of Blues (MoB), a blues-rock band comprising Deepak on drums, Philipe on guitar, Rauf on Keyboard and vocals, Vinoo on bass, combines the music of the 1900's with a distinctly 21st-century flair.

Swarathma, a contemporary Indian folk-fusion Bangalore-based band with Jishnu on bass, Monty on drums, Varun on guitar, Vasu on vocals and Sanjeev on violin, represents the sound of today's India, with their contemporary Indian folk, with a fusion of rock, Carnatic and jazz.

Parachute XVI is a progadelic blues-rock band from Bangalore, that effortlessly straddles two worlds of blues based grooves and contemporary rock techniques.

Infernal Wrath, an extreme metal band from Mumbai, likes to call their music, "Ambient spiritual metal."

Thermal And A Quarter, known as TAAQ is the musical voice of modern India, comprises Bruce Lee Mani, Rajeev Rajagopal and Rzhude as band members and prides itself in the fact, "We are perhaps the only rock band in the world that has not written a single song with the word 'baby' in it."

Evergreen, a slightly progressive, mildly heavy and mostly melodic hard rock band from God's own country, Kerala will also hit the stage.

Rainbow Bridge Band has Wayne Fernandez on Bass Guitar, Sanjeev on vocals, Shyam on drums, Benny on vocals and Salwin on percussions, and will belt out Funk and Blues, good old fashioned Rock n Roll, with a desi tadka.

Amit Heri jazzes up the scene with fine jazz numbers.

The evening will see closing acts by DJ Chico, Clitus and Jalebee Cartel.u00a0

For the arty hearties
Painters, cartoonists andu00a0 sculptors from all over Karnataka will brush up their skills on three canvas boards over three days. All these paintings will be sold to art lovers and promoters, with part proceeds to charity. Open on October 24 and 25 from 12.30 onwards.

An artist at work

Hot wheels
Fiat 1100 Club of Bangalore will display their passion for Fiat cars as they take you on a nostalgic trip into the automobile history, with old and new fiat models. Also, watch out for the Force India winning F1 car on display.

Old and new beauties

Game for game?
The Games section will feature dart, paintball, free throw, pingo (a liquor based game), housie and humour contests. If you're the sporty kinds, try your luck for the Champions League with Beer Pong, a game played by teams on a table, with goodies like beer and merchandise to be won.

Also, a cricket pitch will be set up for contestants to blow out the stumps on Saturday. There are fun beer games like Suck the Juice, Fastest Drinker, Loop, Cheers Up, Build your pyramid and Inter Lock to cool you down.u00a0

Retail therapyu00a0
Shop at over 40 stalls for jewellery, handloom, Madhubani paintings, artifacts, psychedelic t-shirts and paintings, handbags and the likes. The flea market will feature wares from nine Indian states in ethnic village-like ambience.

Food ahoy
Over 15 food specialists will present varied cuisine.u00a0
So put on your dancing shoes, pull out your yard glasses, fill them to the brim with beer and get set for 72 hours of head-banging.

At: Palace Grounds
On: October 23 to 25
Wallet factor: The entry tickets are priced at Rs 300 per head /day. Also, sold online on TicketVerve and available at select Cafe Coffee Day outlets. For bulk or corporate bookings, call, 2509 1060 / 70.

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