On Saturday, Might 24, 2025, ShiRock, the rock pageant happening as a part of the Manipur state government-sponsored Shirui Lily Pageant, involves a detailed after internet hosting the likes of folk-indie act When Chai Met Toast, metallers Inner Sanctum, Gutslit, and extra throughout 5 days.
On floor, images and movies present 1000’s in attendance, however footage additionally reveals a heavy safety presence all through town of Ukhrul, the house of ShiRock. At present underneath President’s Rule attributable to an ongoing battle between the Meitei and Kuki teams, which started in Might 2023, the state of Manipur has been grappling with ethnic tensions. On this context, ShiRock seems to be each a present of energy and an try to revive a way of normalcy, bringing bands from throughout the nation to carry out. By the way, Israeli metallic band Orphaned Land was scheduled to headline, however needed to cancel owing to the “ongoing state of affairs of their dwelling nation,” as acknowledged by ShiRock organizers 7 Sisters Basis president Sunny Shimrah on Might 12.
One other flare-up, simply because the Shirui Lily Pageant kicked off, concerned a bus transporting journalists being requested to cowl up signage indicating it was Manipur State Transport, triggering a bandh earlier this week. In all, a complete of ₹6.30 crores had been allotted to host the Shirui Lily Pageant, in line with the impartial regional information platform Ukhrul Times.
Barring these hiccups, the pageant appears to have gone off with out some other main incidents. Deputy Commissioner of Ukhrul, Asish Das, had stated on the time of funds being allotted, “This pageant isn’t just a celebration of our pure magnificence, but additionally a testomony to our unity, resilience, and creativity.”
Per week earlier than ShiRock, on Might 18, indie bands in Imphal did what they know finest—host a DIY music pageant with a few of the prime acts. Imphal Indie Music Pageant—hosted by Phā Rekords —introduced in seasoned acts like indie rockers The Dirty Strikes, shoegaze act Lo! Peninsula and rock act Meewakching, folk-indie act Eyoom, and post-punk act Physique Electrik. Whereas there have been a superb quantity of safety forces current close to the pageant space, Phā Rekords and Meewakching frontman Silheiba Ningombam says the truth that 3,000 individuals confirmed up for the debut version is a testomony to the starvation for stay music within the state.
Ningombam and Lo! Peninsula’s vocalist-guitarist Nitin Shamurailatpam—who performed their first present in three years on the Imphal Indie Music Pageant—level out that it was throughout their Holi, native Yaoshang pageant, and Manipuri New 12 months in March and April that extra festive occasions started happening.
Earlier than that, Meewakching have been among the many first to play a stay present in Manipur in October 2024, greater than a 12 months after the battle started. By then, faculties, schools, and authorities workplaces had reopened. The band had launched their EP The Land in 2023 and have been itching to play a stay gig. Ningombam says, “The primary profitable live performance opened to the general public was held in October 2024, inside Manipur College, and we have been lucky that we headlined it. It was a free-entry present organized by the scholars. Then, in March, there was one other live performance in IIIT, Manipur, which featured us, as part of their tech fest, however it obtained canceled when 1000’s of enraged attendees who couldn’t match within the campus protested and tried to climb partitions and destroy the establishment’s properties.”
In the meantime, the likes of Lo! Peninsula spent their time writing, exchanging track concepts, and even studying find out how to self-produce as they steadily labored their manner as much as jamming collectively. Meewakching is prepping to launch their newest album, Bildungsroman, on Might 25, 2025, after band members frolicked aside in the course of the peak battle intervals. “A number of the members fully centered on different methods to earn and typically included guide labor,” Ningombam says.
Elsewhere, metallic bands like Lifeless Soviet channeled their frustrations into their debut EP Human Depredation, launched in September final 12 months. They couldn’t have a gig again then, however did host an intimate listening celebration for metalheads in Manipur. Although the loss of life/thrash metallic band says their “anti-religion and anti-fascist” themes have beforehand come underneath the scanner, guitarist Mavison Laishram states, “Regardless of the chaos, we nonetheless stay energetic and attempt to hold the scene alive with a voice. Artwork and music will not be useless in Manipur, so [we] hold transferring ahead.”
The band discovered a prepared collaborator, nevertheless, in XL Café and Billiards, a venue which was began previous to the pandemic and picked again up on stay reveals in 2024. Whereas they hosted singer-songwriters and folk-fusion bands, Lifeless Soviet turned the primary metallic band to play on the venue. Drummer Nongshaba Okram says, “They not solely compensate the bands pretty but additionally present meals and drinks for the performers. Their dedication to nurturing the native music scene is precisely what we want and deserve.”
Weekly gigs have now resumed at XL Café, and Lifeless Soviet will carry out their subsequent gig in Imphal on July 27 as a part of the inaugural version of the gig collection Hole To Howl. Meewakching has a listening celebration arrange for Bildungsroman on Might 25, whereas Lo! Peninsula has lined up one other gig alongside Manipur bands like Ereimang, Venture RJH, Atingkok, and Meewakching on Aug. 24, 2025.
Manipuri folk-rock artist Akhu Chingangbam based the pageant The place Have All The Flowers Gone in 2014 and ran it frequently till 2022. Nonetheless, Chingangbam feels there must be extra groundwork earlier than festivals start as a present of energy and unity. The outspoken frontman of Imphal Talkies & The Howlers says, “The social material has been broken past restore. We haven’t seen a scale of such battle earlier than. We should work collectively to discover a answer and to rebuild the houses of the internally displaced individuals of their respective houses.”
The seasoned artist is assured that The place Have All The Flowers Gone—which has hosted rock veterans Indus Creed, a solo set by that band’s frontman Uday Benegal, singer-songwriter Ditty, and native acts—might be again “when issues get higher” and when their host cities are now not pink zones. “Normalcy is much away when the state is closely militarized with central forces. Our band has introduced that we received’t be enjoying any reveals in Manipur within the close to future. We’ll come again once we are prepared,” he says. Within the meantime, he and his workforce are centered on his initiative Nouwa Training to assist internally displaced college students within the state, facilitating academics and medical psychologists for college students.
As Ningombam factors out, a number of thousand are nonetheless in aid camps within the state. Whereas ShiRock and Shirui Lily Pageant little question wish to highlight a return to raised days, maybe smaller initiatives like Imphal Indie Music Pageant and reveals at XL Café may level to a extra regular, measured manner for artists and audiences to attach.
Shamurailatpam hails Lo! Peninsula’s set on the pageant was one among their finest, not simply because they have been enjoying after a few years, but additionally as a result of it signifies an try and rebuild the stay music scene. “I view it [Imhpal Indie Music Festival] as a collective effort to make it occur, from organizers and attendees. I’ve by no means seen such a type of vitality ever in any of the festivals. Unbiased musicians are being celebrated, and it was an out-of-the-world environment,” he says.
