The hills come alive with Echoes of Earth 2023

The hills come alive with Echoes of Earth 2023

“The last time I read about the Western Ghats, I was in class VI,” laughs Roshan Netalkar, the organiser of Echoes of Earth — an annual music festival revolving around sustainability and responsibility. Its sixth edition, titled Ensemble of the Wild, focuses on the biodiversity of the Western Ghats.

Echoes was conceptualised even as Roshan saw his city being ravaged by the trappings of development. “The city seemed to have exploded and with it came the add-ons of infrastructure, pollution and a depleting green cover. The Bangalore I had grown up in had disappeared.”

Born into a family of artisans who designed jewellery, Roshan says he began looking at events and entertainment as a career option after his graduation. “Design has been an integral part of our family and I wanted to keep that tradition alive. I took that design knowledge and put it in my business and it worked for me. I love creating on a daily basis and that is what happens in event management.”

Roshan also realised that the effort put in to create something spectacular also generated a spectacular amount of trash. Echoes is founded on the principles of reduce, recycle, reuse. “We don’t buy anything new. Everything we use during the festival is dismantled and kept in storage for our next edition. In the last two years we have been able to introduce this principle into every element of the festival. Our giant stages are recreated from the previous year’s material keeping in mind the current theme,” says Roshan, adding how in the initial years, they designed a stage using bits of broken drainpipes they found lying on Mysore Road.

“Bangalore has an evolved audience for music, especially English music. It has always been part of our culture here and with an evolving audience and changing tastes, the need of the hour is to ensure we bring in eclectic and international global sounds,” says Roshan.

He adds that since their agenda is to educate people about new music, Echoes does not opt for a commercial headliner at their events. “We also believe in growing that community of music-lovers in an organic way.”

This year, the festival will showcase a diverse range of genres, including electronica, jazz, indie, Afrobeat, funk, world music, folk, soul and house techno.