KATHMANDU:

The beautiful oasis surrounded by green hills welcomed all music lovers to enjoy the annual Sun Dance festival on May 3. The two-day programme at The Last Resort, Bhote Koshi had a long list of artistes from all around the world sharing the same stage.

Musical performance began with Attma trio which had Manohar Gururng (percussion), Jeevan Rai (tabala) and Roshan (Chatrang). The soulful classical rendition took the wariness out and pepped up all for the musical extravaganza throughout the night. Though it was drizzling in the beginning dampening everyone’s mood, the sky soon cleared and the sun shone. It looked like the weather too was in support of the Sun Dance.

The crowd comprising mostly foreigners were delighted to be in the mystically beautiful place. The stage was then taken by Blur Breakfast, a blue rock fusion band, who was joined by singer Matani from US who displayed fabulous showmanship. The evening got romantic when Liz Foster mesmerised the audience with her soulful voice and gripping lyrics.

As the sun was setting and darkness engulfed the surrounding hills, Baja Gaja performed their electrifying music. So far the music was more of Jazz type but after Baja Gaja’s performance, the music got peppy and gave the feel of summer. Filosophacal’s music was very gypsy and had eastern music fusion along with enchanting sound of flute infused in the air giving a very happy feel. Root Down and impressive and so was the Drum Solo by Sam but the crowd puller of the evening was Pachooka, which made all get up and get dancing. The dancing continued till the wee hours and Robin Tamang too performed on audience request.

Next day it was more of an aucostic session and the stage was open for those who wanted to perform. Though many guests were excited to do bungee and swing it was cancelled due to bad weather after few jumps. — HNS