By Aparmita Das | UMIAM:
As the days turn shorter and leaves of assorted hues begin to separate from the trees, it is clear that autumn is on its way out; it was also time for curtains to come down on Shillong Autumn Festival 2022 after two days of unadulterated fun by the Umiam Lake.
Like the opening, the concluding day on Sunday had equally entertaining packages in store for the attendees.
Although music drew a lot of attention from the audience, the main attraction of the festival was in fact the Makers’ Market showcasing local handicrafts and locally-made products; a food court featuring local traditional food and Shillong’s iconic food stalls and products like pickles, wines, crafts and more.
Food and festivals go hand in hand since festival cuisine has gained a lot of popularity in the state over the past few years and has drawn a lot of visitors. The festivals in Meghalaya are growing in popularity by the second thanks to the merger of social media and food, and an increasing number of individuals are trying to connect to these events in some way or the other.
Ri Them, a food stall owned by a group of three people, was a crowd-puller with its unique cooking style and display.
“We believe in sustainability. As you can see, there’s no sign of utensils here. We cook in bamboo. Some of our unique local cuisine include Colocasia, Roessley flower, pork and beef, all cooked in bamboo,” Andreas Marak said. “For the locals, these food items may seem ordinary, but we are grateful for the festival as it brought tourists from all across the nation and abroad, as a result of which we were able to sell our unique cuisines,” Marak added.
Another had red fruits displayed on the table.
“In 2018, we imported the seeds of the dragon fruit from Thailand and Vietnam to Mizoram and started farming it,” Zothan, one of the members of the stall said. “Dragon fruits are nutritional and also possess medicinal properties,” Zothan added.
Shillong Autumn Fest was, therefore, an excellent platform for the new and established food outlets to showcase their greatest dishes to a large crowd.
As for the music, Rhem, Imprints, Sonic Vibration, Lynx, L B King, Rum and Monkeys, Bombay Bassment (Mumbai), About Us (Nagaland) performed on the last day of the festival.
The Meghalayan had the opportunity to speak to Bombay Bassment made up of Ruel Barretto (bass), Jeremy (drums), Dj Major C (production/sampling) and Bob Omulo aka MC Bobkat (vocals).
“I get the feeling that North East India has still maintained a passion for music. The people here appreciate bands and respect artistes. And in this festival, I saw teenage bands taking the stage and performing, which we hardly get to see in Mumbai. I hope this passion is kept alive,” MC Bobkat said.
On Saturday, it was the turn of The Prophets, The Rechords, Strait Brothers, Summersalt, LilyXBanshan, and many other incredibly great musicians from the state, as well as a disc jockey from Australia, MOJI. Coming after a two-year hiatus induced by the Covid pandemic, they provided the perfect relaunch of the festival.
The organisers laboured arduously for months to make this year’s event a success with the goal of establishing the festival as an event at par, if not bigger, with similar ones in other parts of the North East.
Speaking to The Meghalayan, OPUS founder and communications head Alethea O’Neal Kynta, said, “Autumn festival is a private endeavour. It is organised by a group of independent entrepreneurs. Shillong is arguably the rock capital of India, and therefore, we wanted to create a concept and an environment for the locals as well as people from all across the globe to come to Meghalaya and learn about its culture, music, and tradition, thereby offering a platform to the budding artistes and entrepreneurs to display and sell their crafts and traditional food items.”