MUMBAI: After completing two successful city editions of the Bacardi NH7 Weekender 2014, the festival headed to Pune on 21 November. Day 1 of the ‘happiest’ music festival had only three active stages – MTS Discover, The Dewarists and Micromax Mega Mix.

This year, instead of six stages, NH7 has five very tight genres of stages. Micromax has replaced Eristoff Wolves Den and Breezer Dub Station, and hosted both electronica and dub acts, being the busiest stage today with seven acts.

The event began with When Pandas Attack, which played to a small audience, moving from the Micromax stage to MTS stage when Tejas performed with a band. The two performances kicked off the day to see more festival goers eventually, by night filling the entire venue with VH1 surf balls and happy scenesters.

The Bacardi stage doubled as a giant wheel and had numerous stalls lined up in front of the closed stage. The Stray Dog Jam Room from Harley Rock Riders also made its way to the Weekender, along with other really cool displays and equipment. Adi & Suhail and Castles in the Sky played simultaneously at different stages, with the former completely blowing minds with their soulful melodies. The collaborative act brought alternative fusion live on The Dewarists stage and ended their set with ‘Kalandar’, a number with a political message.

One of Mumbai’s best electronica acts – Nicholson wooed attendees with his voice and keyboard skills. He was accompanied by The Dirty Jays and Rohan Ramanna for his performance, which set a mellow mood for the evening.

DJ/producer Nanok and Frame/Frame Live also kept it relaxed and easy with their groovy tunes and rhythms. Frame/Frame was joined by Abhishek Bhatia aka Curtain Blue as a guest vocalist. Curtain Blue also performed on the Micromax stage, with a lot of psychedelic electronic feel.

For an early evening gig, Nikhil D’Souza’s performance saw a huge crowd, rocking to his popular acoustic songs. He was supported by Warren Mendonsa on guitars, giving his numbers the right amount of a rock feel. The audience sang along to his ‘Simple Kind of Love’ and proceeded to watch Monica Dogra, singing songs from her latest album ‘Spit’.

The MTS Discover stage saw some of the best acts, including Monica Dogra and The Manganiyar Classroom by Roysten Abel. While Dogra recited the lyrics of one of her songs in an extremely poetic way, the classroom saw Manganiyar’s children teaching their master a lesson. The children, barely ten years old, sang classical folk with much zeal and energy, while the crowd cheered them on. The Manganiyar Classroom was undoubtedly the best performance of the day, bringing music and drama on one stage, enacted by young kids.

A surprisingly good performance was by Mali based Songhoy Blues band, that had a long set but had the crowd going till they finished. Madboy/Mink and Ox7gen Live also got people dancing and jumping till the end of the day. The headliner of Day 1 – Goldspot performed all their known tracks, bringing in the 70’s vibe that also got vocalist/frontman Sid Khosla nostalgic. OML CEO Vijay Nair announced the band on stage by saying that they finally got Goldspot to play in India after being in talks for three years, and everyone in the audience hooted and cheered.

Although there were only three stages, the schedule was packed and people were torn between MTS/Dewarists stages and Micromax stage acts. Day 1 line-up was an easy-going one, a teaser of sorts for the next two days; and with five stages, Day 2 has a much better line-up and a lot of band merchandise to look forward to.