Freedom Jam 2011
The 9th Freedom Jam conducted by Siddhartha (Baja), was a perfect example of a grandiose music festival. This was the first time freedom jam was held in Pondicherry on the 26th of January 2011 which went on for two days, and also the first time it has been held away from Bangalore. The fest was held in four different parts of the beach and it was also a treat to just sit on the beach road and witness the colours and the crowd attending the fest.
Freedom jam was started by the band Baja in the year 2002, which was directed by Siddhartha Patnaik, the founder of the freedom jam scene and the lead singer for the classic band Baja. His aim was to promote live musicians and live music. It started off as a small event which was held in churches, which then saw big companies like Kingfisher, the Hindu and KFC sponsor them over the coming years. Freedom Jam is now known as the Woodstock of Bangalore.
The Freedom Jam team’s decision to move away from Bangalore for the first time, and to hold the event in Pondicherry, is a smart move considering the deadline problems that Bangalore is facing. The strict rules like the deadlines imposed on the rock music scene in Bangalore has left music lovers anxious about the Freedom Jam for this year but the Pondicherry government was very helpful in making this event a great sucess. However, Pondy-Freedom Jam proved to be quite expensive, as organisers had to arrange for the transport and accommodation for all the performing bands.
The uniqueness of this year’s fest was the experiment of having different categories of music in different areas around the same place. This helped the audiences choose what kind of bands they were listening to. The previous Freedom Jams were all conducted at one venue with one main stage where bands of all genres like pop, rock, classical, metal, jazz would come and perform. This forced the audiences to sit through and listen to all the bands while waiting for their kind of music. This time however they had four different parts at the beach, each playing a different genre of music. For example, at the children’s park there was an indie pop stage, at the statue they had classical music, at the Seagulls Pub there was jazz and classic rock and at the port, the audience could listen to heavy metal.
The crowd turnout was not as great for the heavy metal concert whereas the indie-pop and classical music stages were well attended, while the classic rock arena at Seagulls witnessed a small number of people on the first day but was packed the next day.
Jazz fans, however, were disappointed as there were only two bands that performed during the whole of the two-day fest. Some great bands like Blues Connection, Drones from the Turbine, Musik Theoriez, and Chronic Blues were a treat to watch, as were the semi-pro upcoming bands that played a mixture of their own songs and covers.
The festival on the whole was a big break for all music lovers in Pondi, and thanks must be given to the Pondicherry tourism board for having taken care of all the arrangements. Hopefully we’ll be seeing Freedom Jam again here next year.
Freedom Jam is an annual musical concert, it is a treat for music lovers.
The 9th Freedom Jam conducted by Siddhartha (Baja), was a perfect example of a grandiose music festival. This was the first time the Freedom Jam was held in Pondicherry on Jan.26 which went on for two days, and also the first time it has been held away from Bangalore. The fest was held in four different parts of the beach and it was also a treat to just sit on the beach road and witness the colours and the crowd attending the fest.
Freedom Jam was started by the band Baja in the year 2002, which was directed by Siddhartha Patnaik, the founder of the Freedom Jam scene and the lead singer for the classic band Baja. His aim was to promote live musicians and live music. It started off as a small event which was held in churches, which then saw big companies like Kingfisher, the Hindu and KFC sponsor them over the coming years. Freedom Jam is now known as the Woodstock of Bangalore.
The Freedom Jam team’s decision to move away from Bangalore for the first time, and to hold the event in Pondicherry, is a smart move considering the deadline problems that Bangalore is facing. The strict rules like the deadlines imposed on the rock music scene in Bangalore has left music lovers anxious about the Freedom Jam for this year but the Pondicherry government was very helpful in making this event a great success. However, the Pondicherry Freedom Jam proved to be quite an expensive affair, as organisers had to arrange for the transport and accommodation for all the performing bands.
The uniqueness of this year’s fest was the experiment of having different categories of music in different areas around the same place. This helped the audiences choose what kind of bands they want to listen to. The previous Freedom Jams were all conducted at one venue with one main stage where bands of all genres like pop, rock, classical, metal, jazz would come and perform. This forced the audiences to sit through and listen to all the bands while waiting for their kind of music. This time however they had four different parts of the beach as their stages, each playing a different genre of music. For example, at the children’s park there was an Indi-pop stage, at the statue they had classical music, at the Seagulls Pub there was jazz and classic rock and at the port, the audience could listen to heavy metal.
The crowd turnout was not as great for the heavy metal concert where as the indie-pop and classical music stages had a better audience, while the classical rock arena at Seagulls witnessed a small number of people on the first day but was packed the next day.
Jazz fans, however, were disappointed as there were only two bands that performed during the entire two-day fest. Some great bands like Blues Connection, Drones from the Turbine, Musik Theoriez, and Chronic Blues were a treat to watch, as were the semi-pro upcoming bands that played a mixture of their own songs and covers.
The festival on the whole was a big break for all music lovers in, and the Pondicherry tourism board must be appreciated for having taken care of all the arrangements. Hopefully we’ll be seeing Freedom Jam again here next year.
Sunhith Ivarlu
1st yr.M.A Mass Communication
