Soulful Music, Star-Lit Skies & Tattoos: Everything About Ziro Music Festival

Ziro Festival is an outdoor music festival held in Ziro Valley, Arunachal Pradesh. It’s four days of pure bliss 5,500 feet above sea level. The festival, surrounded by misty mountains, has the best of Indie music played by some of the best artists from around the world. If you’re into soulful music, beautiful views, and local rice beer, you should be picking out your festival outfits right about now.

Ziro Valley Music Festival is the perfect place where Indie music producers to showcase their talents, and we guarantee that your ears will be in for a melodic treat. Local artists, among other international artists, showcase their musical prowess in electronic, rock, and folk-jazz genres, and if that doesn’t transport you to another world, we don’t know what will.

If that's not enough reason for you to go, know that you also get to meet the wonderful and hospitable Apatani tribe and get swooned away by their animist culture and sustainable lifestyle. They also have a traditional tattooing tradition, which kind of makes it the perfect time to get your first one (or seventh).

In summary, you lie down under the starlit sky, get some downtime by the bonfire, and get tipsy on the local rice beer, all with soul-pleasing music playing in the background — it’s like being in a movie.

The festival will have two stages for performers, with over 40 acts sporting funky and talented names such as Reggae Rajahas, Alaska Snack Time, Bint El Funk and many more.

The Ziro Festival was founded in 2012 by Bobby Hano and Menwhopause guitarist Anup Kutty. Hano and Kutty had casual conversations about starting a musical festival at Ziro while they were there, and the idea stuck with them, giving birth to what we now know as one of the greatest and most sought-after musical festivals in India.

Getting to this festival is a journey in its own. You'll have to use all three modes of transportation. First, take a flight and reach the closest airport to the festival, which is Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport in Guwahati (other nearby airports include Dibrugarh and Lilabari and Assam, but the flights aren't regular). From here you'll have to take for an overnight journey train journey to Naharlagun in Arunachal Pradesh (the closest train station). And then from there you'll be taking a three to four hour cab to the festival site.

Your ticket does not include accommodation. However, you can choose to book through the festival website. One of the most popular choices is camping, but you'll also be able to find homestays and hotels. From what we've heard, you can even choose to pitch your own tent. You can check out campsites like Kite Manja and Chalohoppo that provide all the resources needed for a pleasant stay during the music fest.

Since the festival is in Arunachal Pradesh, a protected state, you'll need the following permits for entry, even if you're Indian:

Inner Line Permit (ILP): Indian Residents (excluding the natives of Arunachal) need to get an ILP. This can be obtained either online or from the government offices of Arunachal Pradesh in Delhi, Kolkata, Guwahati, Tezpur, Shillong, Jorhat, etc.

Protected Area Permit (PAP): PAP is required by foreigners. This can be obtained from All Indian Missions abroad or the All Foreigners Regional Registration Officers (FRRO) in Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi.

Where: Ziro Valley, Arunachal Pradesh (Duh!)

When: Dates for 2024 are yet to be announced.

Price: Tickets for 2024 are not live yet. However, prices usually vary from INR 2,500 for one day, going up to INR 8,000 for four-day passes! For more updates, check out their website here.