Lavasa, India’s first planned hill city, recently hosted its first ever three day Food-Art-Music-Entertainment Festival (FAME 2014) from May 30 to June 01, 2014 giving a chance to thousands of holiday lovers to make a quick getaway from the hustle and bustle of the city for some cool weekend partying.

This hill city has been shrouded in controversy for many reasons, from environmentalist claiming danger to environment, quarrying, procurement of land, etc. But keeping that aside and all the controversies being now cleared, it was time to visit the city and not get into nitty gritty details that have long been paved off.

Lavasa is about 35 kms from Pune and about 200 kms from Mumbai. A travel time from Mumbai would set you back by about four hours. If arriving from Mumbai you can get off at Chandni Chowk junction on NH4 and from there take the road to Lavasa. The road is well paved and a smooth run to Lavasa, with signboards placed at every few kilometers. The small towns en-route offer no real traffic jams, but instead offer an insight to the life in a village.

On entering Lavasa you cannot miss the majestic Temghar Dam, though at this time of the year the dam was rather dry. Moving on we were greeted with a beautiful view of the Warasgaon Lake and valleys. The brightly painted apartments, the tastefully painted villas and bungalows jot the lakeside and add to its magnificence. The three sides of the valley are blanketed with hills, giving a very surreal atmosphere.

As per the plans of the developers HCC, there are four-five towns that will be built on seven hills. So far, Dasve is one of them, the other town being Mugaon. Our first stop was at the water sports, which is a quite a craze at the moment. Take a speedboat ride, a joy ride in a motor boat, or just share a lazy morning rowing away in a kayak with your loved one. Yes, we saw quite a few young couples enjoying themselves in the calm waters of the lake on kayaks. The folks here inform us that there are a host of other activities to keep you occupied in Lavasa. Rock climbing, paint ball, rappelling, camping, and trekking to the nature trails are a few.

Weather at Lavasa is quite pleasant during evenings and a walk along the waterfront promenade is refreshing. While the day temperatures seem pretty humid for an early June visit, you can cool down in the many hotels that line the lake. For those who are planning to stay, there is the Fortune Select (ITC Group), Ekaant – The Retreat and Water Front Shaw Service Apartments, among a few others that are coming up.

The evening atmosphere brings in the required relief from the day to day city life. The first ever three day fest Food, Arts, Music and Entertainment (F.A.M.E) fest witnessed sterling performances by leading artists and bands such as Niladri Kumar, Agnee, Fazal Qureshi (Tabla), Rakesh Chaurasia (Flute), Shibani Kashyap and Mame Khan (Coke Studio), DJ Ankytrixx covering multiple genres ranging from EDM, Rock, Jazz, Opera, Classical, Sufi and String Quartet. The audience also got a chance to get introduced to classical opera by Italian opera singer Gioconda Vessichelli. Theatre performances by Sharon Prabhakar, Tara Sutaria added to the diverse repertoire of the festival.

Apart from food, art and music, other forms of entertainment were also on offer, you had the flea market, grape stomping and art & dance classes and the military band that enthralled one and all with their crisp tunes on the bagpipes.

The last day for which we had attended, saw sitarist Ravi Chary perform at the Fortune Hotels to a small group of people who were seriously interested in what he was playing. Move over to the main stage near the Lavasa International Convention Centre, and you had a jazz ensemble in store. Louis Banks and the Jazz Matrixx in attendance giving off some smooth jazz tunes from Thelonius Monk to various other jazz legends. Jazz man Joe Alvarez took the stage half way into the set to belt out some smokey and rock and roll jazz as night fall took over. Joe’s unbridled passion, with incredible range and power, was remarkable. He entertained the audience with foot-tapping music and fine performances. One of his songs ‘Bombay Duck’ was typically old jazz, fuelled by the humdrum of the city of Mumbai and its sea coast. It was peppy, foot-tapping music that blended flawlessly with Joe’s deep voice. Though the crowd seemed really thin, the jazz set the tone for future acts coming to Lavasa.

After an hour and a half of jazz moods, Alvarez introduced his daughter Bollywood singer Shefali Alvarez. Shefali then took over the stage for over an hour singing Bollywood tracks from down the years. She took the audience down memory lane to the Bollywood classics and even to the all time favorite ‘Paani Paani’ song. The crowd was on their feet grooving to her songs. By 11 pm the live act drew to a close, though there were requests for an encore.

But the party shifted to the Lavasa International Convention Centre for some EDM. Played by DJ Randolph, the sprawling 10, 000 ft hall sadly looked deserted with only a handful taking to the dance floor. We could probably blame it on the finals of the IPL happening that same night.

If jazz was not your cup of tea, you could’ve headed for standup comedian Bharat Dabholkar live act, at the Country Club Hotel amphitheatre across the lake. We heard it was well attended and packed a lot of punch. If not, you could’ve just hung around on the promenade and tried your hand at some Karaoke. If you were lucky you could also witness the dancing fountain earlier in the evening.

The fest also showcased some of the best global cuisine on offer, prepared by leading chefs, serving every pallet – be it street food, finger food, live grills or sumptuous multi course meals. To add to this, festival goers also had a chance to sample some of the best domestic and international wines and beer, brewed by local breweries.

Lavasa sure looks to be a great place to spend some quality time with family and friends. Here, you got a feel of cosmopolitan life in nature's lap. Lavasa has a hop on hop off bus service that takes you on a ride of the city, showing you its beauty and fauna. There’s also a trackless train ride that takes you around the city, a hit with the kids.

It would take you a couple of hours to really grasp what the city offers, but Lavasa is a futuristic city. Its cleanliness and well paved roads are the high points of this well planned city. Safety is paramount here with the Town Hall offering you every assistance. A lot lies in store and those who have bought apartments here, are surely the lucky ones to savor it to the fullest; while the tourist will take home abundant memories. A truly European style of living in India.

n  By Verus Ferreira

The author visited Lavasa on the invitation to the F.A.M.E festival on 1st June 2014.