Bacardi NH7 Weekender 2022, Pune: WELCOME TO THE NEW NORMAL

RELYING HEAVILY ON INDIAN ARTISTS NEW AND ESTABLISHED, CURATION WAS STILL KING AT THE SCALED-DOWN TWO-DAY EDITION BUT A LOT SEEMS IN TRANSITION

-  ANURAG TAGAT

FOR MORE THAN a decade, Bacardi NH7 Weekender has kept its date with its original Pune edition. The coronavirus pandemic had something to say about that, even as the festival went virtual in 2020 and showcased pre-recorded sets by the likes of The Lumineers and musician/actor Shruti Haasan.

Mind you, this was a festival that pushed on even as its parent company Only Much Louder (OML) was scraping through serious employee allegations of a history of misconduct at different levels. Artists who had once been reluctant and had even vowed never to perform at Bacardi NH7 Weekender perhaps saw some assurances of turning over a new leaf when esports company NODWIN Gaming bought out the music festival from OML last year.

The new showrunners (to some extent, only in name, given that OML employees also moved to NODWIN Gaming) had their work cut out for them when it came to hosting the first on-ground edition early this year in Pune. Originally announcing Delhi NCR and Kolkata editions (which meant Meghalaya was out of the picture), there were - and are several question marks still with how Bacardi NH7 Weekender will look in future editions.

After all, even this edition was postponed from January to March 26th and 27th due to the Omicron variant's spread at the start of 2022. The Delhi and NCR and Kolkata editions are yet to get a new date. Given that cases were at an all-time low in Pune and other parts of India, facemasks were required but not enforced once you were past the festival entry. Although to their credit, the very first point of entry demanded a double vaccination certificate to proceed.