Preparations on for Hornbill International Music Festival 2014

Our Correspondent
KOHIMA, NOVEMBER 28

Alongside the state’s annual Hornbill Festival 2014, the Hornbill International Music Festival 2014 will also be launched on December 1 at Hockey Ground, Indira Gandhi Stadium, Kohima.
The standard of this year’s Hornbill International Music Festival, the Music Task Force claims, is being raised from what the public have been witnessing in the past years and will attempt to inspire music lovers in Nagaland by catering to varied tastes in different genres of music.
The music events will be organised by Nagaland Outdoors’ Club (NOC) and Sky Entertainment supported by the Music Task Force (MTF).
Organisers today told media persons at the IG Stadium, where heavy preparations for the upcoming music festival are on, that legendary band from England, Smokie, guitar virtuoso Vinnie Moore and Bon Giovi, the official Bon Jovi tribute band are the big international names that will perform for the Naga audience this year.
They informed that on December 1, achieving musicians/bands from Nagaland like Divine Connection, Alobo Naga and the Band, Hello Radio, Purple Fusion and the likes will take the stage.
December 2 will showcase the grand finale of the Naga Orpheus Hunt 2014 which will ultimately decide a winner of a simulation of popular western television singing competitions.
Dubbed ‘Back in Time’, the legendary band from England, Smokie will perform on December 3. Parallel to the preliminary rounds of the Hornbill International Rock Contest (HIRC 2014) which will commence from December 4 at the same venue, the Ultimate Hornbill Choir Competition will be held at the Regional Centre of Excellence for Music & Performing Arts (RCEMPA).
HIRC 2014 will culminate at a grand finale on December 7 wherein guitar virtuoso Vinnie Moore will make a special appearance and also be a guest judge, organizers stated.
December 8 will be set aside for EDM/Rap genre and the show will be opened by LC, a Naga rapper while December 9 will have more activity, with the English Bon Jovi official tribute band, Bon Giovi taking the stage at IG Stadium, and the renowned Shillong Chamber Choir performing at RCEMPA.
MTF officials present at the venue informed that the Hornbill International Music Festival will conclude with the performance of a mosaic of north eastern Indian musicians featuring Vivace (Nagaland), Street Stories (Shillong), Scavenger (Mizoram), Silver Tears (Guwahati), Pulse Pundit (Manipur) and Yesterdrive (Arunachal) among others.