Ziro Festival of Music is an independant music gathering happening every year since 2012 in Ziro Valley, Arunachal Pradesh. Created by Bobby Hano et Anup Kutty, the whole set-up is an eco-friendly initiative. It employs local bamboo artisans and is hosted by people of the Apatani tribe of Arunachal Pradesh.
Ziro Valley Festival features a magnificient list of musical talents from India and abroad, with an amazing audience, ready to enjoy the melody. The festival has a rich combination of Indian music, vibrant culture and art.
The experience is immersive, balancing between the two stages, and eventualy to the third one, namely the food and beverages corner. Musical expression is rather eclectic and the program will transport you from traditional music coming from all over India and abroad to Jazz and Rock or even Rap.
Ziro festival of music has featured, over the year, a great list of Indie artists, like Steve Shelley, Indus Creed, Lou Majaw, Guru Rewben Mashangva, Lee Ranaldo, Menwhopause, and Peter Cat Recording Co, and so on. This list is growing continuously, addind more prestigious artists every year.
Ziro Valley – festival
The town of Ziro located in the Lower Subansiri district in Arunachal Pradesh. It offers mind-blowing views of the city, surrounded by majestic mountains. Ziro Valley homes the warm and welcoming Apatani tribe with mesmerizing scenery, rice fields, enchanting villages, rivers, and landscapes which gives the valley a distinctive feature.
The Itinerary Ziro Escapade is a short 6-day itinerary made for you to meet Apatani people. Discover villages and their unique traditional integrated cropping system in Ziro Valley.
Ziro valley has also been added to the UNESCO’s tentative list to become a World Heritage Site, it also hosts every year since 2012, the magnificent Ziro festival of Music which is a mind-blowing experience not to miss in the area. Some of the best talents in India will be brought together for this festival, with an audience hungry for some original cool music.
Ziro Festival of Music 2019
Ziro valley is the home of the Apatani tribe who are well known for their hospitality and the love for music. And Ziro Valley Festival serves as an outlet to bring together different genre of music artists with music lovers. The festival attracts a plethora of music lovers from different parts of the country. It is an outdoor festival that is celebrated with lots of energy and enthusiasm.
Ziro Valley Festival mission is to showcase the talents and music – not only from North East India – but from all over India and the World. It is also helping locally, in promoting tourism to the State. You could enjoy a magnificient music treat for 4 days, with accomodation facility in camps or homestays are close to the venue.
Check the section bellow “Where to stay at Ziro Valley Festival ?” if you are searching for a homestay !
Many types of different local brews are available to try, from all sort of fruit wines to beers (rice, sticky rice, millet …) and beware of the – sometimes – surprising alcohol concentration ! Not all local beers here worth the same weight in gold. We highly recommand you to try a couple of stalls before making it your second home.
Last year good weather allowed us to lie down in the grass all day long to sip our delicious beverages, while listening to the authentic artists who were featured, till night when the crowd started to get warm and energized and attracted us to melt in the dancing waves.
One of the best crowd ever, between connoisseurs and chill amateurs from all over India : South, West, East and North ; and with a few international guests. A beautiful melting pot of people, all coming to enjoy music, nature and the particular ambiance of this gathering.
The spectators can stay at tents (close to the festival ground) at Hapoli, you can also bring your own tents along. You can also stay in Ziro town, which is filled with some basic lodges and homestays which are not that far from the venue.
Ziro Festival 2019 is a culturaly rich event that you will not want to miss out on the experience. This edition of the event is also going to hold at Ziro and is going to commence on Thursday, 26th September 2019 and it will end on the 29th of September 2019.
Ziro Festival 2019 – Tickets
Daily tickets for Ziro Festival 2019 are sold Rs. 2000 each ($ 29) but attending only 1-2 days is rather rare, providing the effort to reach ; early bird tickets are still available for 4 days at Rs. 5000 ($ 72). You can also book a package with the camping site to secure a tent, good camping site usually get fully booked.
Where to stay at Ziro Valley Festival ?
An official camping ground is available right on the spot. You could stay there if you are looking for the less-distance factor. But it doesn’t lack of camping-type accommodations and many others set one up nearby the festival ground for the occasion : known travel collectives and some independant pop-up campings.
If you travel with us for Ziro Festival 2019, we will take care of everything from the tickets to the accommodation. Exception to the one who prefers the atmosphere of the camp sites. We secured accomodation in a traditional Apatani homestays for our guests. Allowing you to experience their lifestyle and exchange with your hosts, around the fire at night.
We have a limited number of reserved nights in selected and convivial homestays for Rs. 2000 / person with breakfast.
Do contact us to book and experience Ziro Festival of Music hosted by Apatani families !
for Ziro Festival 2019 edition
How to reach Ziro Festival of Music ?
By Road
You can hire a taxi from Jorhat or Guwahati and it is will take about 7 hours for you to get to the town through NH15 and NH27. There are also government buses that are available to take from Jorhat or Guwahati ; but you should beware of the difficulty to get one the previous day, knowing the number of attendants to the festival.
By Rail
The closest railhead to Ziro is Naharlagun Station and is then a 4 hours journey to reach. You can board an overnight train from Guwahati to Naharlagun, you should plan well in advance to book the train.
By Air
The closest airport to Ziro is at Likabali and Tezpur but their flight schedule is unreliable. The best option remains to fly to Guwahati Airport which is 450km from Ziro. You can then take the varieties of land transport options that are available to the town.
What permit do I need for Arunachal Pradesh ?
An ILP for Indian travelers and a PAP for foreign travelers as Arunachal Pradesh falls under the protected area and there is a need for an official permit before you can enter it. The permits that you will need are:
Inline Permit (ILP)
Domestic travelers (Indian Nationals) apart from the natives of Arunachal Pradesh will need ILP before you can enter the state. You can easily get the permit online. The Government Authorities of Arunachal Pradesh also issue the ILP physically, they have their offices in Calcutta, Shillong, Delhi, Guwahati, Tezpur, Dibrugarh, Lakhimpur, and Jorhat.
Protected Area Permit (PAP)
Travelers from abroad (Foreign Nationals) will need to get a Protected Area Permit to travel Arunachal Pradesh. You can get the permit from Indian Missions in your country or from some Foreigners Regional Registration Officers (FRRO) at Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata and Mumbai.
Travel tips for Ziro Festival 2019
- Book your tickets in advance to get the early bird offer,
- Keep an extra day in your itinerary as unplanned events could easily happen on the way,
- Make a reservation in advance, as the great accommodation options available in Ziro are limited and the demand beyond capacity,
- Take along with you a raincoat and gumboots as the festival will hold at the end of monsoon season.
Do contact-us to create with you a tailor-made itinerary including Ziro Festival of Music : families and children are most welcome !
Don’t forget to try out the typical Aping Beer of the region, which will definitely be available at several shops in the festival ground, and many other local specialities …
