Dragonfest on Valentine's Day
An American Indie band, a Mumbai band and a Goan band are scheduled to rock
the Dona Paula jetty on 14 February in another of Ethel da Costa's highly
popular bringing-people-together events.
If the Taj Mahal is the monument of love in Agra, Dona Paula is the
monument of love in Goa. So what better place to hold Dragonfest, the hot
and happening music event on Valentine's Day 14 February 2004, than the
Dona Paula jetty itself. The bands including Dragonfly from the United
States, Zero, Mumbai's hottest new band and Goa's Tidal Wave will play from
5.00pm onwards. Entry is free.
Physical sustenance comes in the form of a food court by Goa Marriott, ice
creams by Frosty,
fast food counters and snack bars. For children and the rest of the
young-at-heart there will be art and fun stalls, face painters, caricature
artists, clowns, valentine balloons, roses etc.
Charitable institutions are participating too. The clowns and face painters
for instance work for Family Care an NGO that works with AIDS patients.
Journalist Ethel da Costa with a string of highly successful music and
cultural events to her credit, is bringing this festival to Goa in
collaboration with Gigpad, Mumbai. The ideology behind all my concerts
remains the same: taking music to the people absolutely free of cost and
using music to get people together, says da Costa.
This will also put Panjim and Goa on the international music map. It is one
way of presenting Goa to the international market; making my city the most
happening city in the country. You will notice that this event has no
sponsors, hence no logos.
Dragonfly is an Indie band in America; we are looking at future
collaboration with international acts when they have gigs in India. This is
a shift from da Costa's earlier locals-only focus. Without a wider platform
our talent will not bloom unless they compete in a larger arena. Since most
of our artistes cannot take their gigs internationally, we will bring the
world to Goa. To this end, Dragonfest will have performances by Dragonfly
from the United States, Zero from Mumbai and Tidal Wave from Goa.
The American band Dragonfly is on a promotional tour of India to release
and promote their album The Edge of the World through Sony Music. A
five-piece Indie band from Boston, put together by lead singer and
songwriter Miki Singh and blues guitarist Peter Paroek; a renowned
Boston-area blues guitarist who has played with such artists as The
Grateful Dead, Sheryl Crow and Muddy Waters -- it has Steve Scully on the
drums (James Taylore, Juliana Hatflied, Letters to Cleo), Mark Hickox on
bass (The Peter Parcek Trio, Lucky Stereo) and veteran keyboardist and DJ
Brother Cleve on the keyboards. They will be performing in Mumbai,
Bangalore, Goa and Pune. The strength of this band is that it can move
seamlessly from quiet mood
ballads to heart-pounding rock.
Zero, the band from Mumbai, writes original songs. They have been winning
competitions and wowing their audience, even impossible-to-please IITians
at Mood Indigo, Mumbai, to win best band awards. Now they have released an
8 song album Honk, which has already sold more than 2000 copies.
Gigpad the outfit that sources out international bands and organizes their
promotional tours in India is actually a rock portal www.gigpad.com . It
was started in 1999 by a quartet of musically musically inclined business
management students from IIM Calcutta. Gigpad is a consultancy firm
attending shows, meeting bands, getting them to go on promotional tours in
India.
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