For the first time ever, a camping festival took place amongst the scenic beauty of the Sahyadri hill range, an event titled The Lost Party that had music, food and campers all in one place. March 6^th ,7^th  and 8^th (for campers only) saw about  5000 people gathered to groove to a galaxy of music artists from the world of EDM to pop, rock, folk, Arabesque and fusion. The festival held in Mugaon about 7 kms from Lavasa city, served as a runaway from the hustle bustle of the daily life, bringing all who came for it, from as far as Delhi, Bangalore, Pune and Mumbai, to converge on a common platform for a fun weekend.

We met on Friday 6^th of March, the Festival of Holi at the meeting point at Andheri lounge bar The Little Door, where a mix of media persons and regular concert goers took the bus to Mugaon.

The Lost Party event had already begun by the time we were on our way to Mugaon. Those who came in early got a chance to revel in the Holi celebrations. The music though would begin only past 3 pm by which time we would be reaching the venue. However, we got lost as we headed to The Lost Party, yes in the literal sense the driver took a wrong turn which caused a delay in reaching the venue. Lavasa, although beautiful in construction and layout, when we were passing through it seemed like a ghost town with hardly any people in sight. There were buildings in various stages of construction, some which looked precariously embedded in the hillsides.

‘Come As You Are’ screamed an arc at the entrance to The Lost Party. Yes we left all our stress, and work load behind us and headed for a weekend of paradise. After a strict security check, we entered the venue which was a flatbed of land

People had come from all over, some driving down in their own or in hired vehicles.

There were two stages, the first Boomerang which had only EDM music and the other Woodstocking where the live acts performed. We finally managed to enter the venue post 4 pm, by which time the first live act for the day was already playing their set. While the action was on both stages, you had various dance DJs at Boomerang. The band Cinnamon Gully was up first with their lead singer Neha Bhasin belting out sassy vocals to some jazzy tunes. Pop singer Vasudha Sharma from the pop band Aasma was popular with the crowd and sung some crowd favorites in Hindi urging the audience to dance along. Next on was German born Classical musician and multi - instrumentalist Prem Joshua on sitar, soprano sax and bamboo flute, who infused traditional Hindustani acoustic instruments with lounge and trance beats. Want some pulsating rhythms and you had Hamza and Bista with traditional Rajasthan beats combining Indian and Western influences to give a unique sound. The Turbans who were next belted out some of their traditional Turkish songs with fast rhythms using Arabic and Hungarian scales. They had a German rapper who stepped up the crowd’s enthusiasm with some rapping.

The night ended on an EDM note with Delhi based Nucleya spinning some fab tracks from Dance to Bollywood and a bit of techno.

The food stalls were serving a variety of rolls, wraps, noodles and other delicacies. There were the drink stalls which served Budweiser and Smirnoff with a various combination of mixers to suit everyone’s taste. Bookmyshow had provided cashless cards which could be purchased from Rs 500 onwards. Hawkeye cigarettes from Godfrey Philips had 16 brands on sale which they were newly launching in the market.

The tents were compact and cute. There were some that could accommodate two or four people based on your requirement. A camper’s kit provided you with a hand towel, a steel mug, soap paper and the indigenous toothbrush called “Datoon”. The tent had a pillow with a blanket. Yes it was biting cold on both nights even though it was a lot like summer during the day. Mobile toilets were placed at two locations, near the tents and near the stages.

We got a taste of Bollywood actress and singer Sarah Jane Dias, who on Day 2 gave a smooth, sensuous rendition of several popular tunes, a few cover versions of songs close to her, original material, displaying a good range of vocals. Dias in a figure hugging evening dress showed her sexy side too. Voctronica, a 6 member beat boxing band comprising of two female and four male artistes, wowed the crowd with their versatility and a sublime “Skyfall”. The sound effects produced by them were phenomenal ranging from a double bass, trumpet to high pitched guitar harmonics.

We then had Nikhil D’souza who was backed by Sid Coutto of band Tough on Tobacco. Nikhil’s high pitched vocals and meaningful lyrics were reminiscent of the first Woodstock performers truly keeping the name of the stage in mind, we’d say. Ankur Tiwari & The Ghalat Family performed next with traditional songs and rhythms much to the delight of his fans who were present.

The big ticket for the night was certainly Trilok Gurtu, the world class percussionist who performed with Ravi Chary on sitar and Sangeet Haldipur on keyboards. Gurtu played on the tabla, drums, bongos, a spiral cymbal like arrangement, a metal bucket filled with water and other instruments .He stunned the crowd with his blistering rhythm and innovations where he struck a metal disc and immersed it into a bucket of water creating a unique sound. He also tapped the metal bucket with a drumstick and struck the bucket handle against the rim. Ravi Chary was his gregarious self playing to the crowds and standing with his sitar with one leg on the monitor a la rockstar of years gone by. Though much younger in years and experience than the other two star performers, Haldipur’s tremendous keyboard skills lent ample support to Gurtu and Chary.

Tony John the charismatic singer from Malayalam rock band Avial brought the house down with his enigmatic set of rock tracks. John played their grungy rock anthems and ballads with heavy staccato rhythms. If you thought the songs would sound funny, if you were at The Lost Party stage listening to Avial, you would’ve become a believer in Malayalam rock. The songs sound powerful in Malayalam and has only increased their fan following.

The last act for the night was Yolanda Be Cool, a single DJ set by the bearded DJ. After he finished his set, he realized he had infact not played his hit track ‘We No Speak Americano’ an returned for an encore to play which was welcome.

What was heartening to see was the way the artistes like 2Blue from Zedde, Voctronica, Sarah Jane Dias stand right in front of the stage and support the ones who were performing with loud cheers and fist pumping.

After the live acts were done for the night, campers moved to the campsite where a campfire and musicians with guitar and a Cajon box performed sing a long numbers for the audience. Campers too were invited to perform a song if they wanted to. A small DJ station was also set up near the food stalls in the campsite and some of the crowd gathered there to enjoy the music and down a few more drinks before retiring for the night.

If you wanted to party the night away, you could head over to the silent party and use headphones where two DJs were spinning tracks near the Boomerang stage.

While The Lost Party had many highs, there were a few things the organizers should consider the next time they plan to have such a massive event. What could have been managed better was a rearranging of the schedule as some really good artistes played early and had a very small audience; their set was limited to 30 minutes or a 40 minute performance. On the food side, a stall serving barbecued or tandoori food was sorely missed at an outdoors event like this or round a campfire. For the tipplers a larger variety in alcohol would’ve been welcome. Also the hygiene factor at the restrooms in the campsite with regular attendants on call was missing.

Some of the promised activities were missing too, the Hen catching, the Budweiser billiard table, book exchange club etc. But one of the biggest blessings was no creepy crawlies or helicopter like mosquitoes to trouble the campers at night.

All in all, a good debut for The Lost Party event organizers. A camping festival in the middle of the mountains, where you were lost, and we mean it when we realized that we had no cellphone range in the area. With such a feat, The Lost Party certainly lived up to its name.

By Savio Miranda with inputs by Verus Ferreira