How An Indian Music Festival Is Combining Sustainability With A Great Lineup

Music festivals in India have gained unparalleled momentum over the last couple of years. Year after year, these festivals have formed communities of like minded people who make a pilgrimage of sorts to remote areas of the country just to feel that connection with music, dance and the places that allow their free abandon.

What these festivals seemed to have lacked, however, is a certain sense of consciousness that builds when a community of thinkers, artists, and people looking at the same big picture come together. More specifically, a consciousness towards the state of the environment and how our pure love for music might be contributing to it too. With tons of waste generated at these festivals and a complete disregard for the space that is left completely wrecked after, these festivals almost seem to do more harm than good.

For the first time in India, Echoes of Earth stands to change this narrative. This is India’s first ecologically-crafted music festival, with a killer lineup and an onground camp site for about 200 people to look forward to. To be held at The Embassy Riding School in Bangalore at the end of this month, their three stages will be headlined by Submotion Orchestra from the UK.

Other International artistes include Youngr, Beardyman, Jordan Rakei, Alo Wala, Talvin Singh, Susheela Raman and Franca while local Indian artistes include PCRC, The Ska Vengers, Madboy/Mink, Nicholson, The F16s, Zokhuma and Your Chin. For full lineup details, visit their website here.

Brainchild of Swordfish, an innovation agency with a global footprint in the event and marketing space and Watson’s, one of Bangalore’s most popular neighbourhood bars, Echoes of Earth has made it evident that they’re about much more than just one thing, however.

“This festival is the need of the hour,” says Roshan Netalker, one of the founders. “I have been a part of this industry for more than 15 years. The amount of waste that we generate on a daily basis is just shocking. I thought it would be a great challenge to take up something like this on such a huge scale, and create a platform for education on these matters.”

Given that this is the very first year, don’t go expecting to see the Leave No Trace policy as in Burning Man or the vegetable oil powered grid of Boom just yet. Roshan expects the festival to reach a self-sustaining model by the third or fourth edition, while the foundation starts to be laid with this first edition.

This year, Echoes of Earth is focussing on three core elements to reduce waste and cut down their carbon footprint - water, electricity and waste. Water is your number one accessory at any music festival. Each attendee is encouraged to carry a bottle that can be refilled from the filling stations that will be present all over the venue.

In case one forgets, there are bottles on sale - a fine example of where festival merch actually comes in handy. As far as electricity is concerned, Roshan tells us that “It is very difficult for us to sustain ourselves completely on organically generated electricity.

We are currently in talks with a windmill company which will upload power onto a grid, which we can use. The most amount of energy will be consumed by our three stages, so we are also in talks with a brand of generators that use biofuel.”

This year will be to experiment with different power sources to find what works best, and implement it in the years to come. The challenge is to accommodate for the tech requirements of the artists, which cannot be compromised and is crucial to ensure the success of the festival.

Sameer Chib, also a founder of the festival and Watson’s tells us that “Giving back to the community is an integral aspect of our business and Echoes is a natural progression of this philosophy.”

As far as waste is concerned, the festival has teamed up with Hasiru Dala, a waste management organisation, who will handle waste collection and disposal. There will have dustbins placed strategically everywhere on site with effective communication on them so people know what goes where.

Additionally, all food outlets at the festival will utilise biodegradable cutlery made from sugarcane fibre. Post the collection of segregated waste, solid waste will be sent to manufacturing units, biodegradable waste will be sent to Bio- gas plant and only the non-recyclable waste (sanitary) goes to the incinerator.

At any festival of such a large scale, we forget to account for the wastage from constructing the stages. At Echoes of Earth, all the stages are built using recycled and upcycled materials. For instance, the first stage is made out of recycled cloth and sari material collected by NGOs and the electronic music stage is made out of drainage pipes and tyres.

A bulk of these materials were collected from scrapyards, and post the festival, will return to where they came from. Most importantly, there are no flex and plastic boards being printed for branding purposes. Instead, cloth has been used and artists have been asked to create branding - cutting out a solid amount of waste that really serves no purpose at all. What was most important here is getting the message right, even if it was at the cost of sponsorship. These were difficult decisions to make, but absolutely necessary for the larger vision of the festival.

As if this wasn’t good enough already, Echoes of Earth is also organizing documentary screenings, a museum of tribal and folk instruments, a sapling drive, a cleanup drive before the festival begins each day and workshops for people to attend and find ways to get more involved.

Some of the workshops include learning about composting and urban farming, waste segregation and activities for children to get more involved with sustainable processes. Echoes of Earth, without doubt, is a trailblazer for festivals of any kind in India. We’re not missing this one for anything, and neither should you!