MUMBAI: India’s largest multi-genre music festival, Bacardi? NH7 Weekender, returns to its hometown, Pune this 8-10 December. The 2017 edition of the festival’s home city will take place at a new venue, Mahalakshmi Lawns, Nagar Road. Conveniently located in the heart of the city, the venue promises easy accessibility to fans attending the festival. The festival has just announce the date-wise lineup for the home city.

The festival stays true to its intent of bringing fresh talent and breakthrough acts that continue to make up for 60% of the lineup each year. The eighth edition of the festival in Pune this year is no exception.

Day 1 (Friday, 8 December) will be headlined by American metal act The Dillinger Escape Plan, known for its experimental style, and Dutch metal icons Textures, both of whom are playing their farewell tours. Textures, who are on the final leg of their Last Miles to the Moon tour, play their their final ever performance together as a band on this day, capping a career of close to two decades.  Also performing on the festival's opening day are British a capella sensations The Magnets, Carnatic Classical musician TM Krishna, Mumbai metal veterans Zygnema, post-rock act as we keep searching, Hindi pop band Ankur and The Ghalat Family, singer-songwriter Aditi Ramesh, and blues rock band Blue Temptation, among others.

Day 2 (Saturday, 9 December) will be keenly awaited by guitar lovers as virtuoso Steve Vai takes to stage. After his rousing India debut at the Meghalaya leg of the festival on 28 October, fans can look forward to another truly memorable set in Pune.  There are several other highlights to look forward  to on Saturday - including festival veterans and folk rock icons Indian Ocean, Bacardi? NH7 Weekender Pune debutant The Ram Sampath Experience (led by Bollywood composer Ram Sampath), a curated special set Blackstratblues All Stars (led by Indian guitar hero Warren Mendonsa), Hindi rockers The Local Train, Urdu rock band Parvaaz, Chennai garage rock outfit Skrat, returning Indian rock band Indigo Children, French rock band Colt Silvers, hip-hop act Bombay Bassment, acoustic guitarist Bhrigu Sahni  and several more.

Day 3 (Sunday, 10 December) Indie music fans will look forward to American rock-dreampop collective Cigarettes After Sex, punk sensation Marky Ramone and artist-activist Madame Gandhi, Canadian acts Youngblood and Bad Pop, all of whom will play in India for the first time. Bollywood director and music composer, Vishal Bhardwaj’s first ever live performance, like his films, will be sheer art. His performance will cover his film trilogy, Maqbool, Omkara and Haider, based on the Shakespeare tragedies. Fans will see several other top artists take to stage, including hip-hop sensation Divine, contemporary Indian folk act The Raghu Dixit Project, singer-songwriter Prateek Kuhad, Rajasthani folk musician Mame Khan, comedy rock band Vir Das’ Alien Chutney, ska band The Ska Vengers.

Several bands are performing fresh off the release of their new albums: such as Skrat (Bison), Blackstratblues (The Last Analog Generation) and Prabh Deep (Class-Sikh), all of whose albums have all charted on iTunes India in recent months. Additionally, The Local Train, Kraken and Short Round will be performing music from recent albums. For curated Bacardi? NH7 Weekender -only sets, watch out for the NH7 Hip-Hop Collective, The Karsh Kale Collective and Blackstratblues All Stars led by guitar virtuoso Warren Mendonsa.

Bacardí NH7 Weekender Pune is also adding an exciting new element to the festival: performances by India’s top comedians. This is the first time a music festival in India has added a strong comedy segment to their lineup of performing artists. The lineup includes well-known and popular artists such as Biswa Kalyan Rath, Kanan Gill, Rohan Joshi, Ashish Shakya, Anuvab Pal, Kaneez Surka, Azeem Banatwalla, Aisi Taisi Democracy, Kunal Kamra, Kunal Rao, Atul Khatri, Sumukhi Suresh, Vaibhav Sethia and many more. Fans can expect a variety, ranging from stand-up, and sketch to musical comedy.

“After an immensely successful Meghalaya edition, we’re really looking forward to Bacardí NH7 Weekender Pune,” says OML Entertainment CEO and founder Vijay Nair. “This city obviously holds special memories - this is the place where it all started and it’s been a great journey these last seven years.”

View the day-wise schedule of artists performing at the festival here:

DAY 1 - Friday 8 December

Aditi Ramesh

Ankur and The Ghalat Family

aswekeepsearching

Blue Temptation

Girl Names

Kraken

Mahesh Raghunandan

May Island

Textures

The Dillinger Escape Plan

The Magnets

TM Krishna

Zokova

Zygnema

DAY 2 - Saturday 9 December

Ali Saffudin

Alluri

Bhrigu Sahni

Blackstratblues All Stars

Bombay Bassment

Colt Silvers

Easy Wanderlings

Indian Ocean

Indigo Children

Kumail

Oceantied

Parvaaz

Sid Vashi

Skrat

Steve Vai

The Local Train

The Ram Sampath Experience

DAY 3 - Sunday 10 December

Bad Pop

Cigarettes After Sex

Divine

DJ MoCity

Honey Lung

Kamakshi Khanna Collective

LANDS

Madame Gandhi

Mame Khan

Marky Ramone

NH7 Hip-Hop Collective

Nooran Sisters

Prabh Deep

Prateek Kuhad

Short Round

The Raghu Dixit Project

The Ska Vengers

Vir Das’ Alien Chutney

Vishal Bhardwaj

Youngblood

Comedy Performances

DAY 1 - Friday 8 December

Aisi Taisi Democracy

Anirban Dasgupta

Gaurav Kapoor

Kunal Rao

Nishant Tanwar

Sumaira Shaikh

Sumukhi Suresh

Vaibhav Sethia

DAY 2 - Saturday 9 December

Anuvab Pal

Azeem Banatwalla

Kanan Gill

Kautuk Srivastava

Naveen Richard

Rohan Joshi

Sonali Thakker

Urooj Ashfaq

DAY 3 - Sunday 10 December

Aadar Malik

Ashish Shakya

Atul Khatri

Biswa Kalyan Rath

Kaneez Surka

Kunal Kamra

Neville Shah

Rahul Subramanian