Curtains down on Gulmarg fest, Highway 61 steals the show

Gulmarg (Jammu and Kashmir) - Snowfall and frequent power cuts tried to play spoil sport at the Gulmarg Winter Festival, but the event reached its crescendo thanks to amazing performances by bands like Highway 61, Tritha and DJs Vikrant and Abhishek on the final day.

The fest that had started Friday concluded here Sunday.

Highway 61, a band that specialises in Hindi, Urdu, Sufi and ethnic rock, belted out their best Hindi and Kashmiri songs and enthralled the audiences. The icing on the cake was their final song "Aye khuda" that brought tears to the eyes of the audience. It was obivious as the song talked about the boundaries created by a group people for their selfish means.

"It's been four years we have been playing. We have been trying to play originals and do something that feels good. It's all about the right kind of music. We just want to entertain and inspire people be it in Kashmir or Afganistan," lead vocalist Mohammad Munim of Highway 61 told IANS.

A chance meeting through a common friend in Pune brought the band members of Highway 61 together. While Mohammad is from Kashmir, guitarist Jatin Kale is from Maharashtra, Rohit Vasudevan is from Kerala, Hardik Vaghela, who plays keyboard, is from Gujarat and Rahul Majumdar from West Bengal.

Other bands that performed on the final day were Drift!! The Trio, Lagori, Tritha, Traveling Blues, Nyu 'n’ tum and Hashish Back.

Singer Tritha and her band also impressed the audience with it’s heartwarming Hindi, English and Bengali tracks.

After the bands, DJ Abhishek Dixit and DJ Vikrant took over and played some of the best groovy numbers.

The last day saw some locals trickling in and enjoying the music. If they swayed to the tunes of the bands, they couldn’t stop matching steps on DJs' music.

“It is good to see that a festival of this kind has been organised here. I have thoroughly enjoyed the whole day. This kind of music is rarely being played here and I have enjoyed it as it was something different. Even the DJs are superb. I can't stop myself from dancing on the music played here. It is fantastic,” said Naseem, one of the guests at the event.