Passing through the Kovalam bypass road, kilometres away from the buzz of Thiruvananthapuram city, no one would suspect that there exists a large sprawling campus brimming with arty things on a side lane. The Arts and Crafts Village, located at the end of a bylane near Vellar, was opened for craftspeople from remote areas to create, exhibit, and sell their work. Extending its scope, in the last five days the ground also turned into a venue for a rare indie music fest in Kerala.
Twenty-one bands –from India and abroad – participated in the festival, which was put together by two city musicians, Jay and Manoj, who had left behind their band dreams in the 1990s and came back to it a quarter of a century later. Jay and Manoj joined hands with the Kerala Tourism Department's Arts and Crafts Village to organise the show, which hosted seven bands from outside the country.
On Saturday, November 12, when we drove into the campus, small groups of young people, mostly in black metal T-shirts, were trickling in for the music fest. Outside the main venue, a young woman strummed a guitar and sang Elvis Presley for a few gatherers. Saturday’s schedule had four bands on the menu – three of them metal and one Carnatic rock. Inner Sanctum and Chaos, calling each other brothers, performed heavy, explosive music that shook you from miles away. Even those who claimed not to enjoy metal found themselves nodding their heads vigorously in step with the head-banging fans upfront.
Nikhil gets down from the stage and plays his mad solo amid the crowd during @Chaos_Metal 's performance at the Indie International Music festival in Thiruvananthapuram yesterday. #iimf #chaos pic.twitter.com/CzcOA6KTUN
— S.R.Praveen (@myopiclenses) November 13, 2022
While Inner Sanctum is from Bengaluru, Chaos is from Thiruvananthapuram. Returning to their home turf was always great, said Chaos vocalist JK, and proceeded to sing a Malayalam metal song the band composed for the film S Durga.
Rudra, singing Sanskrit metal and coming from Singapore, was the third band of the day. After them, it was Agam led by Harish Sivaramakrishnan, a familiar figure who not only has a huge vocal range but also occasionally makes speeches on social issues.
#Agam at the International Indie Music Fest #IIMF in #Kovalam on Saturday. pic.twitter.com/vg2oy9KZEf
— Cris (@cristweets) November 13, 2022
On the first day – November 9 – it was a Kerala band singing Malayalam protest songs, Oorali, which opened the fest. Two foreign bands followed up the act. Among them was Anslom, a reggae musician from Papua New Guinea, who is the cultural ambassador of his country. Sami Chohfi from the US, who has made albums in India, performed on the second day. Job Kurian, who is active in film and independent music in Kerala, had a rocking show, complete with his famous single, ‘Padayathra’. The third day, When Chai Met Toast, another popular indie folk band with roots in Kerala, performed after a pop band from the UK and a rock act from Malaysia.
The fest ends on Sunday with a show by playback singer Sithara Krishnakumar’s band featuring Indian folk numbers. Organisers Lazie J – Jay and Manoj’s band – will perform classic rock, while Will Johns from the UK will end the show.