When I was younger I'd accompany my father on his quests that would take us into really remote villages surrounding my town. He'd show me mud houses and tell me stories about how the family living there along with their friends built them in the span of a week. My little spoilt brain figured that people lived in self-constructed mud houses as a last resort for shelter because they were poor. Little did I know, two decades later my feed would be filled with expensive workshops happening across the country teaching people how to build the same mud houses as a tool for sustainable living. We flew so far into innovation that we came back around to traditional knowledge systems in a full circle.
In a similar vein, a boutique festival in a small village in Assam is aiming to highlight the importance of local communities, sustainable living and the power of nature-based solutions for a healthier planet. The Big Bang Festival, taking place in the Nanadisa village, celebrates music, culture and the indigenous way of life. The festival's theme this year is 'Village is the future'.
Villages like Nanadisa are not only serene havens for slow living; they offer a vision of a future where local economies flourish, are sustainable, and deeply connected to nature. As global ecological and social issues intensify, it’s becoming clear that the systems we depend on are faltering. However, villages, with their self-sufficiency, bond with the land, and cultural knowledge, present a viable alternative that's already within reach.
The Big Bang Festival 2024 is the result of Studio Monkey Shoulder, a global music initiative to empower and celebrate innovative grassroots music communities and projects that go against the status quo. The initiative awarded £10,000 to five communities around the world to help bring to life an original project. One of the recipients was the Bass Foundation Roots Sound System, owned and operated by Delhi Sultanate. One of the very few hand built Jamaican style systems in all of South Asia, BFR chose to revive Big Bang, the 'festival of love', in the Dima Hasao district of Assam.
“The idea was to find spaces that were not dominated by commercial interests, that allow free artistic and cultural expression and to search for alternative contexts for the raw power and potential of music, specifically reggae music, to move people to foster a sense of unity and shared consciousness and to speak of social injustice."Reggae artist Delhi Sultanate aka Taru Dalmia.
Building the sound system came from Delhi Sultanate aka Taru Dalmia's desire to break out of the shackles of the club and festival scene, which felt too restricting, and provided the reggae artists the means to take the music to the people. Over the past few years, BFR has held street and block parties that celebrate black culture and anti-colonial resistance all over the country.
With Studio Monkey Shoulder’s support, BFR will travel all the way from Delhi to Nanadisa village in Dima Hasao, Assam to host two full days of programming curated by musician activist Mr.India aka Daniel Langthasa. The boutique festival will showcase sound system culture alongside local folk artists and cultural traditions, with the aim of bringing together the various tribal communities in the area. BFR Sound System has been a part of the festival since 2017 and it has been a big part of their crowd mobilising efforts in the north eastern part of the country.
“This initiative came at just the right moment in my life,” confesses Dalmia. “Just when I was unsure about how to proceed with BFR and chart my path in this music industry, being selected for this initiative made us believe in ourselves and gave us the means to be audacious and think big. Having travelled to that part of the country before, we knew we wanted to celebrate Dimasa tribal culture and indigenous wisdom, and organise a proper reggae sound system session out in the open in the jungle,” he adds.
Apart from the music, the festival will be a showcase of Dimasa community's heritage through a series of engaging workshops and experiences, some of which are listed below:
Judima Brewing
Traditional rice wine crafted by skilled women brewers, recognized as the first beverage from Northeast India to receive a GI tag.
Dimasa Handloom Weaving
live demonstrations where artisans showcase their mastery of age-old techniques.
Khangra
A workshop by local craftsmen in weaving the native bamboo basket.
Cooking workshop with chef Roohi Haflongbar
Preparing traditional Dimasa dishes using fresh, local produce.
Healing Walk
A walk with the Khunang, the village headman and herbalist, as you learn about the medicinal plants used in traditional remedies, and even take some home with you.
Rooted in the concept of localization, The Big Bang Festival is a call to rethink how we live and move forward together. Through music, art, and culture, it's an invitation to explore the idea that the solutions we seek may already be right here.
The festival is taking place on October 26 & 27. Get you4 tickets here.
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