MUMBAI: About 2000 people are expected to gather at the annual Hillside Rock Festival (HRF) on 4 April and witness performances by upcoming rock bands, followed by a headlining act from prog rock band ‘Coshish'. Last year, the free entry festival attracted more than 1000 people at the Open Air Amphitheatre in Belapur- CIDCO's Urban Haat, which will serve as a venue this time round as well.

The event is organised by Rotaract Club of Navi Mumbai Hillside (RC NMHS) Kharghar, who wants to make this a platform for upcoming bands of Navi Mumbai and Mumbai to showcase their talents. It includes bands representing various genres like hard rock, soft rock, alternative rock and punk rock amongst others. There were around nine bands during the eliminations round of Hillside Rock Festival, which took place on 28 March. The bands were judged were by Ajay Nayak (Blame the Herb), Rahul Khobragade (Tattva) and Paresh Nirmal (freelance drummer).

Hillside Rock Festival event head Omkar Jagdale said, "The bands that played last year wanted to participate this year as well. We have got a good response so far for the festival. There are people of various age groups gathering at the Amphitheatre to enjoy these bands."

Bands shortlisted for the finale include Guns Reloaded, Catastrophic Disintegration, Punkture, Kashmeer and Elevate. Four-member band- Coshish, will also be part of the judging panel at the finale.

Jagdale, along with a group of people turned this concept into a reality because he felt there is a lack of platforms, and wanted to give the youth the opportunity that he and his band missed. Despite playing for a band in the past, he does not play at music festival and venues regularly. The last time Jagdale and his band played, was at the last HRF.

Rotaract Club of Navi Mumbai Hillside also conducts regular social activities across Navi Mumbai like free dental camp for policemen, helping Ashalaya Orphanage kids in Kharghar, blood donation camps and many more. The money generated from HRF will be used in such social causes. Jagdale added, "We are doing a service through the festival."

Currently, there are talks about increasing the frequency of the festival.

The festival has partnered with Red Bull, Creative Design Academy, World Optix, Fadu, Navi Mumbai Awaaz and amongst others.