ZIRO (Arunachal Pradesh): The sixth edition of the Ziro Festival of Music (ZFM) got going on Thursday in this little valley in the eastern Himalayas in Lower Subansiri district of Arunachal Pradesh. Over four days, 31 musical acts -- ranging from rappers to folk bands – will perform for 6000 tourists and hard-core music aficionados from all parts of the country.
The tourists are high on local rice beer and there is much touristy revelry. But the organizers softly caution the celebrants to keep it all tucked in lest the local people take it askance.
The Ziro valley is inhabited by 50,000 people of the Apatani tribe. For them, the influx of people from all parts of the country, is a mixed blessing. It brings business of course, but there are to whom the ‘hippie culture’ – meaning drugs and booze – is not welcome.
A sizeable chunk of the arrivals at this year’s Ziro Festival of Music (ZFM) are south Indians. "This has become an annual pilgrimage for us. Along with NH 7 Weekender in Shillong (the other big music fest in the northeast) , ZFM offers some very good music performances," said Kruthi Rao from Bengaluru.
Most of the visitors camp adjacent to the festival site. Or you can stay in one of the 24 home stays in the valley.
"The Apatani people are very hospitable and generous. However, tourists should remember not to go overboard in merrymaking," said P Subramanian from Chennai.
Many of the tourists come here for the music as much as the ride up the narrow pot-holed roads from Itanagar or Lakhimpur in Assam. "We started riding 10 days ago. We wanted to enjoy the journey as much as the festival," said Phillip Samuel from Kochi.
For the locals, business is good but then there’s the drugs and debauchery. Not every Apatani is boisterous about the money the revelers bring. Narang Tam, owner of a home stay in Hong Village, said, "We have nothing to learn from this music festival although it boosts our economy. Ziro and Arunachal Pradesh are in a transition phase, it's like a teenager now. So, it is very easy for it to go astray.” After the first edition of the music festival was held six years ago, he said, there was a lot of conflict erupted in Apatani society with a rise in drug abuse and adoption of western culture, sidelining the tribal culture.
"In the initial years, we used to give unlimited local rice beer to the tourists but they created a lot of trouble for us. Since then, we put a cap of one litre per person every day," Narang Tam said.
At the festival site, there are more than 30 stalls selling pork and rice beer. Every stall owner pays Rs 30,000 to the organizers. For the Apatani, it’s a stiff price for four days.
One stall owner said a lot of the stalls this year were taken by people from other parts of Arunachal. “Most Ziro residents can't afford to pay Rs 30,000. Others have taken the opportunity," he said.