Spring Zouk is the name of a festival in which was held February 3-5 2012 at Udupi beach on at St Mary's Islands in Karnataka, India. The festival was a project coordinated by the state government and various sponsors to attract international tourism.
Description
The event was a 3-day music festival where 30 international bands performed.[1]
Sponsors
The event was sponsored by Kingfisher, VH1, and the government of Karnataka.[2][3]
Performers
Juno Reactor, Prem Joshua, and others were among the performers at the event.[4]
Reviews
for full reviews see:
http://synthfrisyr.wordpress.com/
The festival were supposed to start friday at noon (or maybe in the evening) and we arrived in Udupi early friday morning. First we had to wait for the pre-sale counter to open and then we got our ticket. Then we waited for the ferry/boat which would take us to the island. It was late and our friends got on some kind of vip boat or whatever I think. People then returned from the island and said that nothing was going on and that the preparations for the festival really seemed bad and that nothing had been built or at least very sparingly. That is what I understood through some poeple with limited english (russians and some other people). Finally we got on a ferry for the island and arrived. One stage was not even decorated. There was no information with timetable or such. The main stage (?) near the water was also not quite prepared for any big artists with speakers and such. Some folk dancing happened on the beach but no artists were turning up at all. Then some more folk dancing on the stage which were nice I guess but it sure wasn’t Vibrasphere or Juno Reactor or any other band or artists… I got in line to exchange my rupies to tokens so I could get some food. There were hot dogs and some forms of biriany. No vegetarian altarnative what so ever which is really astounding. Many visitors were vegetarians or vegans. I know artists are to. The queue system was non-existant and just people bumping and being a bit hungry and angry since no festival was going on. Finally I got some food stamps. As for the prices it was very expensive with 100 or 150 rupies for the food. I got my girlfriend and we stood in line for food. Not for hot dogs since she is vegetarian but for rice or whatever we could get. We got rice. Rice. For 100 rupies and for 150 rupies. There were some pieces of meat and sauce but just served from a big steel bowl. Not so tasty. I understand high prices at festival but this was ridicoulus since no festival happened. While I was waiting in line all that had happened was more folk dancing my girlfriend said.
Now. About the ticket price. It was 3500. But if you bought at gate it was 2500. It said 3500 only on the webpage. So it was a rip-off even there. Also some visitors said they could buy online after midnight thursday for 2500… This is not fair. More on tickets later.
About the food and drinks. The price for beer was 130 or 150 for a small small can of kingfisher. And they were sponsoring! It said 45 rp on the can… High price. As I said I do understand higher prices at festival but the festival hadn’t started at all. Only folk dancing. No music. No highlight tribe. No nothing. And it was late evening friday. I asked volunteers and people working at the festival and got no good answers. There were delays due to various creative facts such as: - It’s an island (Yeah. You knew that BEFORE arranging no) - Problem with transport (WHEN did you start to plan and bring stuff?) - Just hold on it will be great (When?) I asked for new timetable and it was ready or was going to be ready but wasn’t yet. A volunteer asked me to just wait and said entertainment would come. She suggested a smoke. I don’t smoke. I started to want some compensation. Finally some really crap red bull speakers were placed on the stage and some sort of organizer said great and thanks and that some DJ would play. Earlier he had presented some of the folk dancers and said it was going to be DJ and dancing and music soon. Still no timetable. Nothing. Finally a DJ started to play but the sound was horrible and the lights were like hitting him RIGHT in the eyes… No one said who was playing or when he REAL artists would play. No new timetable. Waiting. We got tired and got to sleep. Close to the stage. No real artists from the timetable at all. For all night. No Vibrasphere. No Juno reactor. Nothing at all but real crap music on really bad redbull speakers. Sigh. We woke up and the music was going on and being intererrupted. At noon a break. We asked people and they said highlight tribe would play at 2 pm or 4 pm or whatever… It did not happen. A break at noon. No music. Still no shops as promised. STill no real food. STill no festival. Nothing. The first DJ started to play early in saturday night. Like 00.30 on the night to saturday. More asking. No new timetable. No artists. I demanded to get to know when and were told to wait for some organizer who would come in an hour. He did not. I asked again. He would come at night… nothing. Finally we just had enough much later and went back to Udupi. Had dinner. And took the bus home to Mapusa and then taxi to Arambol. I heard later that highlight tribe might have played sunday night. But it is not possible to have all artists play from sunday I guess to monday and include all on lineup… And it would end sunday. So what did you do? When did you start the festival? When did you end it? It was soooo delayed and I’m not happy.
Porngate
At the event some people had public sex. Someone made a video recording of this and there was talk among some local people that the foreigners' way of having a party was not in accord with local customs.[5] A government committee decided to review the events at the party and compare them with community values.[6]
Shortly after the party, some members of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly watched a sexually explicit video taken from this event during government proceedings, and subsequently resigned amid public outcry of watching pornography.[7] The media named the scandal about watching the video from this event as Porngate.
References
- ^ "Spring Zouk island fest kicks off with a colourful note". deccanherald.com. 3 February 2012. Retrieved 9 February 2012.
- ^ "Caught red-handed: Karnataka politicos caught watching porn footage on mobile phone during assembly talks". Udupi,: dailymail. 8th February 2012. Retrieved 12 February 2012.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help)CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) - ^ "springzouk 2012". Retrieved 12 February 2012.
- ^ "St Mary's Island turns 'hippy land'". Udupi,: Deccan Herald. Feb 4, 2012. Retrieved 12 February 2012.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) - ^ Gowda, Aravind (7 February 2012). "Karnataka government shamed over sex on Udupi beach". indiatoday.intoday.in. Retrieved 9 February 2012.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: year (link) - ^ "Govt appoints inquiry committee over 'Spring Zouk' party on island". newkerala.com. 2012 [last update]. Retrieved 9 February 2012.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|year=(help)CS1 maint: year (link) - ^ "Porn row:Cong says hiatus between preaching & practice by BJP | Deccan Chronicle". deccanchronicle.com. 8 February 2012. Retrieved 8 February 2012.