Youth, NGOs to meet on rock n roll platform …….Joeanna Rebello I TNN
In their punk-y elegy to a fluorescent adolescence, the British quartet Arctic Monkeys, remind a girl that she has, in the course of commitment, Discarded all the naughty nights for niceness…landed in a very common crisis. A group of adolescents from Mumbai are hoping to land their fraternity here in another kind of common crisis recruiting youth to plug social black holes of today.
The focal point of the project is a music concert called Distortion 08, conceived and coordinated by college students from across the city. It emerged last year in name alone, but it developed intent and trajectory only this year, when the core group decided to turn the concert venue into a confluence of NGOs and youth.
Last year, 10 of us gave the concert shape with a budget of Rs 30,000. This year, our team is much larger. We have over a lakh to spend, and we have a goal, says one of the organisers Harshil Karia, who passed out of Jai Hind College this year.
The slogan of the concert is: 6 Bands, 6 Causes. Rock the Community. Six bands will be selected from 20 at the eliminations, and each will choose a social cause to campaign for through their music. Some of the participant bands this year are One Track Mind, The Echoes, Khiladi and Sabotage, with veterans Zedde opening the acts. The six causes the bands will be campaigning for are cancer awareness, social responsibility, animal welfare, child empowerment, global warming and womens rights. While the organisers have managed to get entry into the club cut to Rs 100 that night, they hope people will give the money they saved on the entry fee, to charity. This is not a fundraising event, Karia explains. Were too young to hope to raise money for the NGOs but we can help meet their prospective volunteers in the student community.
Band eliminations will take place at Not Just Jazz By The Bay, on December 18, from 6 pm onwards, followed by Distortion 08 at Hard Rock Cafe from 8.30 pm.