Wine, Sunshine and Beats at India's SulaFest 2012
A two-day event which saw the very different worlds of wine-making and electronic music collide in a surprisingly blissful marriage, India's SulaFest — held in a vineyard in Nashik, several hours east of Mumbai — is nothing if not unique.
Now in its fifth year, the event regularly attracts a crowd of hip and beautiful seasoned party-goers, all of whom flock to Sula Vineyards (India's very own mini-Napa Valley) to indulge in some local wine-tasting (and quite possibly a few cocktails) and serene festival sounds. This year's SulaFest featured a range of contemporary Indian music, including British-Indian producer and musician Nitin Sawhney (pictured, below right) — whose credits include a FabricLive mix — and electro breaks act Dualist Inquiry.
As well as providing some staggering mountainous scenery for a backdrop, the vineyard setting also meant that a huge range of wines, wine-tasting and grape-stomping were on offer to keep the crowd happy between sets. In fact, the variety of drinks was certainly a cut above the usual festival standards; accompanying the local Sula offerings (including a very palatable Dindori Reserve Shiraz) were a choice selection of New World and classic wines, and some fine cocktails, such as a chili-infused Cointreau, ginger Mount Gay mojitos and various refreshing and fruity concoctions from the Hendrick's Gin stand.
The upbeat rootsy sounds of Reggage Rajahs provided the musical highlight of day one, with their bouncy reggae proving a clear crowd favorite, before the mad bass skills of jazz-fusion artist Etienne Mbappe brought things to a close.
Day two of SulaFest began with an unusual way of cooling down in the searing Indian sunshine; grape-stomping. Along with several hundred others over the weekend, I took my turn to step — barefoot — into a huge barrel of Nashik's finest grapes and have a thoroughly good stomp. It's a cathartic — if enjoyably messy — practice, and all the grapes crushed over the festival will be used in Sula wines.
After wiping the grape juice from my feet, it was time to catch a set from arguably the biggest draw of the festival, Nitin Sawhney — an exciting prospect, not least because this was his first ever show in India (having been born and raised in the UK). Sawhney's performance was a fine one, showcasing both his mellow and melodic side (with several acoustic-led vocal numbers from his latest album, and several classic tracks from 2001's Prophesy — live versions of Sunset and Footsteps were both beautiful), and his skills as electronica producer, with a selection of rawer, beat-based tracks to finish the set, including a stunning vocal-tabla duet/battle between Sawhney and his percussionist.
Providing a big, bassy close to the festival was Dualist Inquiry, a.k.a. Sahej Bakshi. The 24-year-old solo artist has been rising quickly through the Indian dance underground (also finding an overseas platform with a recent performance at the UK's renowned Great Eascape festival), and it wasn't hard to see why after watching his SulaFest finale. Bakshi hit the crowd with an excellent set of chunky breaks and jagged electro, also bringing in plenty of huge distorted guitar waves from a live, processed guitar. Shades of dubstep, fuzzy house, drum 'n' bass and IDM were also melded into Bakshi's compositions, which gave the audience a pleasingly frenetic way to end the festival.
SulaFest was an unmitigated success, and if 2012's event is anything to go by, then wine-making and electronica (preferably with a dose of Indian summer thrown in) could well be the festival recipe of the future.
