Emily in India

During my first week of work, one of my colleagues came by to recommend a Bangalore music festival in December called Echoes of the Earth. At the time, I thought my friend Victoria would be in Hyderabad and that I would be with her but I followed the event on Instagram thinking I could go in 2024. Eventually I learned that Victoria was not going to be visiting so I would be in town for the festival. A week before the event, I invited Mallappa and bought two tickets.

Neither of us knew what to expect. Pictures from previous events looked cool on Instagram but as we drove to the site, no one was around. Mallappa made a joke about “where are you taking me?!” Soon enough, we could see lights glowing in the sky and hear bass traveling across a field. We had arrived! So many cars, so many people. We parked, got our wristbands and entered the festival. It was an environmentally-friendly techno music festival in the woods. 3 stages, no plastic allowed, art installations in the woods. Food, drinks, dancing. We danced and danced! It rained a bit, we moved from stage to stage looking for the best dancing music. It was so cool.

Mallappa kept saying, “I can’t believe this is India! This is an India I didn’t know existed.” It was really special to be able to expose him to something new. We danced until the last note of music was played then went in search of food. The event was set up such that you could “load” money onto your wristband and then use it to pay for food and drinks. We had loaded a certain amount so had money to spend or go to waste. I got French fries (India knows how to make a good potato, that’s for sure) and a delicious chicken kathi roll. Life is good!