The Score Magazine - Archive December 2016 issue! | Página 33

Royal Enfield’s 3-day annual festival that celebrates
biking, brotherhood and music - Rider Mania 2016 recently
concluded in Vagator, Goa. We provide you with a
throwback to what went down in the land of sun and sand,
last month.
Ask any Royal Enfield enthusiast (read: die-fard fan, for,
there is no middle ground when it comes to the fandom
that Royal Enfield enjoys) and he / she will tell you that the
iconic thump of a Royal Enfield motorcycle is nothing short
of music. Multiply the thump by tens of thousands and what
you get is an infectious symphony that is good enough to
give you goosebumps trigger a wave of adrenaline rushing
through the veins. Goa experienced something similar this
November as thousands of ‘Rider Mania’cs rode to the sun-
kissed state of Goa, from near and far, to celebrate biking,
brotherhood, music and more at Royal Enfield’s annual gig
Rider Mania 2016 in Vagator.
Team Royal Enfield believes that the riders are really
at the heart of all the kickass rides and events that they
organise. Like the Royal Enfield Himalayan Odyssey, Tour
of Bhutan, Escapade, etc, Rider Mania continues to be a key
annual event for Royal Enfield. The ‘Rides and Community’
department that toils behind the scenes organizing and
conceptualizing these properties to ensure a successful
community engagement programme, is clear about the fact
that Rider Mania IS NOT a music festival. Adarsh Saxena,
one of the key persons who heads this department, says,
“Rider Mania is festival with biking as its focal point. Most
of the people attending the festival ride from different parts
of the country and come to Goa. When they get here, they
get involved and keep themselves busy in the activities
happening here, like the Custom Bikes Arena, the races
that are happening, etc. Basically they are kept rather
busy with all things biking. This is where music plays a
very important role.” And rightfully so. After a hard day of
work with motorcycles, having fun in the mud, every rider
deserves some entertainment. Team Royal Enfield believes
in using this opportunity to create eventful evenings that
contribute to long-lasting memories each year by igniting
the spirit of music, mates, motorcycles and more, by well-
known artistes. “We use music as an important element to
elevate the entire experience of the festival”, adds Saxena.
The makers of Rider Mania have a rather unique approach
when it comes to the selection of the artistes performing
at the festival. Saxena adds, “We ensure that we work
with artistes who want to be a part of Rider Mania, and
not merely based on their popularity. The artistes really
need to be able to connect to motorcycling, the riders and
Royal Enfield.” The artistes may not belong to any one
particular genre of music but the quality of the artiste holds
paramount importance. Team Royal Enfield also keeps an
eye out for artistes who may not be very popular but are
churning out fine music, and ropes them in for the gig. This
can be best explained in the example of band, Sapta, who
opened the music at Rider Mania this year by performing
on Day 1. Saxena explains, “We had Nucleya perform here 3
years ago and look at Nucleya now. Over the years, Nucleya
has really exploded. So we try to keep a healthy mix of the
‘big daddies’ and the newbies, as far as the artistes are
concerned.”
Nucleya took to the stage on Day 1 and the crowd was
mighty elated to have the artiste playing at Rider Mania for
the third time. The crowd went berserk as the ‘Bass Raja’
didn’t take much time to bring the house down with his
infectious music.
Sapta, a Chennai based Electronic band also played on the
first day.
Day 2 of the fes tival saw Ankur and the Ghalat Family take
over with their songs that have a 90s 'pop songs' feel to their
compositions and simple lyrics. The band was followed
by India's first reggae sound system in the form of Reggae
Rajahs stuck to their mission of spreading the sounds of
dub, reggae and dancehall music. The final act of Day 2
was a collaborative setup featuring DJ SA - India's premier
HipHop/Trap DJ and Sound Avtar (SA), said to be one of the
most explosive Bass and Trap Music DJs.
The music affairs on day finale began with Parvaaz, a
Bangalore-based rock band comprising of Khalid Ahamed
(vocals), Mir Kashif Iqbal (guitar), Fidel D'souza (bass) and
Sachin Banandur (drums & percussions). The Kashmiri
lingo used in the songs and the Pink Floyd-esque essence
to the entire set-up of Parvaaz’s sound connected well with
the audience at Rider Mania. However, team Royal Enfield
indeed saved the best for the last and Papon proved why he
is one of the hot properties in the Indian music scene at the
moment. The multi-instrumentalist, who was performing
at Rider Mania for the second time, celebrated his roots by
strumming a few Assamese songs and the bikers who had
assembled from across the country, hummed along thereby
stressing on the fact that music truly knows no boundaries.
Papon’s extremely popular Bollywood songs – Sun Le Re
and Moh Moh Ke Dhaage followed but what really got the
audience swooning was Banao Banao, as the crowd echoed
the words after the singer. The evening, and the festival
came to a close despite the bikers seemed to not have had
enough of Papon’s singing prowess. All things must come to
an end, they said.
The
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