A Correspondent
Boko: The two-day Me'gong festival, the largest music venue in the Garo Hills region, began with a bang as Paul Lyngdoh, the minister of tourism, opened the event in front of thousands of people at the Baljek Airport near Jengjal in West Garo Hills (WGH). He was accompanied by the ambassadors of three nations: Uzbekistan, El Salvador, and Jamaica. Actors Haystack Ladies, Da Suraka, Gajendra Verma, Euphoria, and former actor Udita Goswami performed during the fourth Me'gong Fest, leaving the audience wanting more.
The event is held every year by the department of tourism and attempts to promote local music and culture to a wider audience. This is the first year that tickets are being sold with the previous three editions completely free to anyone that wanted to see the stars up close.
Yesterday’s program began with the all-women band from Garo Hills, Haystack Ladies warming the crowd to music, playing covers of various international bands.
Following on their act, local Garo group Da Suraka continued to build on the momentum playing their most popular songs to a rapturous crowd. Incidentally, the crowd continued to build through the evening with not a soul moving from the place until after the evening’s proceedings were over. Popular singer, Gajendra Verma (Emptiness, Isme Tera Ghata fame) next took the stage playing over 10 songs including songs from his unreleased album. By this time, the crowd present was already in the mood. Scenes of people from the crowd dancing and singing along with popular Bollywood numbers as well as international hits sung by Verma, were the common occurrence.
After Verma’s act, the festival was formally opened by tourism minister, Paul Lyngdoh as chief guest along with the Ambassador of Uzbekistan Sardor Mirzayusupovich Rustambaev, Ambassador of El Salvador Guillermo Rubio Funes, Ambassador of Jamaica Jason K M Hall and host of dignitaries and officers of various departments being part.
On the sides, every store that had been set up for the two-day major event was doing quite well. It was a heady mix of singing and dance that went on well into the morning today, with food and drinks available for those who could afford them.
The highlight of yesterday’s musical extravaganza had to be Dr Palash Sen’s Euphoria who took listeners back to yesteryears with their soulful rendition of ‘Dhoom Pichuk Dhoom’, ‘Maeri’ among others. The band mostly played songs from their own albums while also showcasing their versatility by also playing international hits.
The last act of the day was former actor, Udita Goswami taking on a different avatar as a DJ. Goswami played out popular hits that were lapped up by an audience that kept asking for more. Me’gong festival has been a crowd puller over the past few years with record footfalls. In 2022 when the festival hosted two popular international bands namely MLTR and Big Mountain. More than 2.6 lakh people were in attendance while over 3 lakh people came to see last year’s show that was headlined by Vengaboys and Bollywood sensation Arman Mallik.
Also read: Meghalaya: 5th Edition Of The Hill Festival Set To Be Held On December 6–7 At Umiam
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