The very first year that Ziro Festival was about to kick off in 2012, it almost didn’t. Co-founder Anup Kutty, sitting on a hill overlooking the festival grounds in Biirii as well as green fields as we speak, says torrential rains nearly made them call it off. “It was a big mess, but then we still somehow pulled it off,” he says.
The festival had support from the Arunachal Pradesh government soon after, who recognized the potential of a DIY festival in a faraway valley that focused on music discovery, specifically from the Northeast. Over the span of more than a decade, Ziro Festival has been home to international artists ranging from post-rock giants Mono, guitar great Lee Ranaldo to rock experimentalist Damo Suzuki, mainstream hitmakers Kailasa, Lucky Ali, Farhan Akhtar, and last month, Shilpa Rao.
At the core of it, however, Ziro Festival has never been about tooting its horn over the big names. Unlike most Indian music festivals, the lineup posters for Ziro mention all names in the same font size, creating an equalized roll call. That’s where Indian indie acts like the Ganesh Talkies, Easy Wanderlings, Parvaaz, Aswekeepsearching, Polar Lights, Murder In Space, Taba Chake, Street Stories, Trance Effect, David Angu, and more have all been presented as festival highlights over the years.
Kutty, also part of seasoned rock act Menwhopause, says he’s always been driven to curate the artists he would like to see on Ziro stages, and that remains the core philosophy. “You also keep your ears open to other people’s suggestions. Then we also keep in mind how diverse we can make the lineup. For instance, we need to have representation from each of the Northeast states. That has always been there since year one.”
At Ziro Festival 2025, we see artists make the trek to Arunachal from places like Goa (Signal W), Chennai (Arivu), Berlin (Anna Erhard), and New York City (Guitar Prasanna), with layovers, multiple modes of transport and long journeys. The likes of Arivu even stayed back after his high-energy set (where he skipped his film song catalog for songs from his two albums and unreleased material) and went fully local. On stage, he taught his audience Tamil chants, and off it, he was vibing hard to Congolese act Kin’Gongolo Kiniata, partying with campers at afterparties and making new friends.
Arivu tells Rolling Stone India, “It was a long journey, but I knew the vibe would be worth it. That’s the beauty of Ziro — the crowd is open, tasteful, and ready to participate. So I showcased a lot of my independent and experimental tracks (like ‘Origins’).”
The rapper says he could feel the festival was “curated with care.” Curation and programming are key to bringing exclusive performances and have become a major draw of the festival. Ziro Festival 2025 had standout performances by international artists like K’ingongolo Kiniata and Thai funk act Ford Trio, while Manipuri rocker Sorri Senjam, Soumik Datta & The Travellers delivered a somber set touching upon the state of the world, Susheela Raman and Sam Mills interpreted William Blake’s poetry. There were also numerous heartfelt tributes to Assamese star voice Zubeen Garg by Sorri Senjam, Shilpa Rao, Swanand Kirkire’s Baawra Live, Chorun Mugli, Niil, Remi Remi and Da Minot.
Guitar Prasanna says he caught the Carnatic harmonica performance of Saitejas Chandrashekar and his accompanists, as well as the groovy set by Gauley Bhai and Shillong blues great Rudy Wallang. “The range of music that is featured… so many amazing bands that I didn’t know [about], there’s a lot of creative music happening in India and platforms like this are absolutely necessary,” he says. Even his own set featured the Northeast’s top musicians — guitarist and singer-songwriter Takar Nabam, bassist Nishum Pul, and drumming powerhouse Nishant Hagjer. After their performance at Ziro — which featured everything from Carnatic guitar riffs to Nabam leading the audience in sing-alongs of local Arunachali Nyishi songs — Prasanna promises this set of musicians is “going to do a lot more,” and that Ziro was just the starting point. “I want to do more with these people and showcase the young talent here,” he adds.
Arivu chimes in about the festival’s thoughtful curation, adding, “They bring together underground voices, folk traditions, hip-hop, electronic, indie rock — all in one valley. The organizers clearly understand music as culture, not just entertainment.”
Elsewhere, emerging artists like Rudy got to road-test a whole new iteration — a live band, in her case —for the first time at Ziro. While she has previously performed on stage solo with a backing track, this time, Rudy brought an all-girl quartet to play her moody, intimate R&B-informed tunes. The sunny, verdant setting at the Danyi stage was a study in contrasts, but Rudy didn’t mind. “I’ve never played a festival in such a scenic spot, so it’s a whole different vibe. This is my first set with a band as well, so we thought we’d just give it our best and see how it goes. I think it was great for a first try,” she says.
The festival’s spotlight on Northeast talent from the start is why it’s looked at as a pillar of support among musicians in the region. Singer-songwriter Chorun Mugli went from playing the Danyi (day) stage in 2023 to a full house, to closing day one of Ziro Festival on the Pwlo (night) stage. Mugli, who sings in Hindi and Arunachali dialects, says, “As a regional artist, it’s very difficult to get our music out there, outside of this region. Ziro is a place that has an audience from different parts of the world, so I feel I have the chance to make them explore my music here.” Performing his 2021 single “Jajin Ja” to a swaying audience across two editions has shattered the belief he once held — that people wouldn’t connect to his music because they didn’t understand Nyishi. “It changed everything,” Mugli admits.
With tribal lore-inspired bands Da Minot or funk band Larger Than 90 (both from Meghalaya) at this year’s edition, Ziro Festival continues to thrive on its Northeast roots. It’s an indicator that, despite kicking off around the same time as other independent music festivals across the country in the 2010s — from NH7 Weekender and Vh1 Supersonic to Magnetic Fields Festival to Bangalore Open Air — its success lies in staying true to its programming ethos and drive for music discovery.
Another differentiator here is that while other festivals all had major corporate sponsors backing them in some capacity, that came only recently for Ziro Festival. Kutty says, “You can take money from the government or corporates or whatever, but as an organizer, your first and foremost goal should be to make it sustainable through ticket sales.”
On-ground, you might see Ziro Festival as deeply committed to their sustainability goals — bamboo stages are constructed and then deconstructed and sold back to locals, recyclable and compostable utensils and plates, and urinals are filled with charcoal and used to nourish the soil. But Kutty also says sustainability is about how they run as a business.
They might be the only music festival that says no to sponsors, if Kutty is to be believed. “We’ve said no to big corporates who want to set up things inside. We’ve said no to them because we can afford to say no to them now,” he says. The co-founder is quick to add that it “takes a long time” to get to that position. “This was a loss-making thing for a really long time,” he adds. The organizer recalls some sponsors who said it was “too far” for them to come set up shop, while others wanted to carry out a lot more in-your-face branding when, as Kutty points out, attendees often travel this far to get away from all of the usual festival experiences seen in cities.
At a time when four-act club gigs or an extended DJ night or corporates rushing to book one viral act are being branded as festivals, Ziro Festival stands out as a reminder of what an independent music festival is really about – music discovery, kinship, and memories. “Why is this a festival? I mean, because by the end of four days, you see familiar faces and you’ve had this shared experience. You’ve lived with them. You probably had lots of beers with people. Everybody’s staying in the vicinity; you go through the moods of the weather together. You see the sun together, you see a rainbow together, you’re experiencing rain together.”
The shared experience, he underscores, is with “music not in the background, in the foreground.” Kutty adds, “So for me, even though I say so myself, that really is a festival.”
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