Control Alt Delete: A guide to India’s largest crowdfunded indie music festival

Experience the joy of ad-free music at the 13th edition of Control Alt Delete music festival, a unique cultural insurgency set to redefine musical gatherings.

In a world where music festivals echo corporate ads , the 13th edition Control Alt Delete (CAD) music festival is set to redefine the very essence of musical gatherings. 

“This is only the fourth edition of this being in a festival format. Before that, we have had individual gigs on different dates and locations. It made more sense to put it together as a festival at Roaring Farms in Malad, Mumbai,” says Pratika E Prabhune, who overseesMarketing and Communications at CAD. 

With a strict no-corporate control policy, the festival runs solely on the love, time, effort, and contributions of its passionate community – from fans and artists to organisers, fabricators, and beyond. It is a unique musical nursery that thrives on a ‘pay what you want’ policy, breaking down economic barriers. “We believe in inclusivity and understand that not everyone can afford to shell out exorbitant ticket prices,” she says, adding that the target for last year was to raise ₹5 lakh through online crowdfunding. “The target has been increased to ₹10 lakh this year because we want to pay the artistes better. So far, the festival has raised 48% (₹4,87,800 approx) of the target funds, but we are confident about meeting them fully,” she adds. 

Apart from online contributions, the festival also has physical donation boxes dubbed daanpeti where the audience drop cash to contribute to the festival fund. Contributors get shout-outs, festival merchandise, a chance to meet and greet their favourite artists and even join them for an exclusive after-party, depending on how much they contribute. “A lot of our major contributors are individuals who are fans of the music and even artistes from the industry who are fans of the ‘pay what you want’ model,” she says.  

“Once the production of the festival is taken care of, all the profits of the festival are distributed equally among performing artistes. We have always had this ‘artiste first’ mentality so that a mix of them gets the opportunity to perform at a festival,” Pratika says . Artistes old, young, popular and new are treated equally at the festival and are given an even platform to showcase their talent. “We aim at curating a festival that has a lot of fresh sound, and the line-up is based on discovery. The criteria we consider is just a musician having good sound and being active in the scene,” she adds. 

The tonal palette of the festival stretches from electronic music to metal, and there are artistes coming from various genres. There are five stages — Home Turf, which is the hip-hop stage, Electric Jungle, for electronic music and some hip-hop crossovers, Orchard, which is located in an orchard is a stage for singer-songwriters and sundowner sets, Backyard, for alternative music, and Survive This — an exclusive stage for metal music. 

Speaking about some performances to look out for, Pratika says, “We have a lot of different artistes coming from various parts of the country. Merak is a brother-sister duo from Goa, Shreyas & Vedang the rapper-producer duo from Pune is another act a lot of people in the audience are excited for. Tribemama MaryKali from Kochi is a brilliant performer and has featured as a vocalist in many Tamil and Malayalam movies. There is Tejas Menon who is fresh off his fame from The Archies film. Metalheads can definitely look forward to Moral Collapse, which is a death metal band that nobody in Mumbai has seen live yet. Third Sovereign is a veteran old school metal band coming from Aizwal.”