Pay what you want at this music festival

Control Alt Delete runs on support from the community

After taking a detour to Pune and Bengaluru, community-driven festival, Control Alt Delete (CAD), is back to Mumbai. Set to take place this weekend, it will see home-grown acts such as Mumbai’s Finest, Komorebi and Demonic Resurrection perform.

A previous edition of Control Alt Delete (Photo: Shalaka Pai)

As always, there are no fixed entry charges – you can pay what you want at the door, and the festival founders have put up a crowdfunding request for funds (Rs 5,00,000) to pull the event off. This edition, CAD will take place outdoors for the first time (at Roaring Farms, Malad) and will also turn into a two-day affair. “We are building everything from scratch as it’s not an existing set-up. The challenges in going outdoors are many - the sheer scale of it means more people to work on the festival and more logistics to take care of. It involves massive time and effort from those involved - more so since everyone works on this pro bono,” says Nikhil Udupa, co-founder of Control Alt Delete.

It’s not just the crowdfunding aspect that makes the festival a community event. Bands waive off their fees and go the extra mile to promote it, people give artists a place to crash for the weekend and photographers shoot the gig for free. “Everyone works on the festival without any monetary expectation - the love and support is what makes it possible and unique,” Udupa adds.

While curating the line-up, Udupa says they take care to never repeat bands. He explains, “That pushes us to look for newer acts, keep our line-up fresh and try to promote new sounds. Another big factor is the bands themselves - they need to want to play at CAD, and get our vibe and way of doing things.”

Support: Log on to controlaltdelete.in to contribute to the gig.

Be there: Control Alt Delete will take place on February 11 and 12, at Roaring Farm, Malad.