Great Indian Rock (GIR) was a multi-city rock music festival in India. The first of its kind, it was usually held annually in cities like Delhi, [1] Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Shillong, [2] with a cumulative audience of approximately 50,000 people.[ citation needed] The first GIR was held in 1997 as a two-day festival in Kolkata. [3] The festival is organized by the media and publishing company Entertainment Media Services Private Limited, which also publishes the magazine Rock Street Journal. [4] The festival was founded by rock journalist and promoter Amit Saigal, who died in 2012. Subsequently, according to Mint, the "Great Indian Rock Festival in Delhi called it a day after 15 years…in 2012." [5]
GIR started in the form of a competition amongst bands, [6] [7] where entries were called from all over the country in the form of physical cassettes and CDs. 12 bands were chosen out of more than a thousand entries at the end of an extensive week-long exercise of listening to each and every band's music which was personally conducted by the organizers at RSJ. The 12 shortlisted bands finally performed in a grand finale along with an international headliner which was the GIR Festival.[ citation needed]
Each edition of Great Indian Rock was also accompanied by an album compiling the songs of the shortlisted bands known as the "GIR Compilation," [8] consisting of 12 original compositions by 12 bands from various regions of India. The album would be circulated across India through Rock Street Journal magazine.[ citation needed] Great Indian Rock stopped being a competition in 2007. [9]
In addition to featuring Indian musicians like Parikrama, [2] Orange Street, [2] and Indian Ocean, [2] the festival has also hosted international artists like Shawn Lane,[ citation needed] Jonas Hellborg,[ citation needed] John Myung,[ citation needed] Meshuggah, [10] Tesseract, [10] and Intronaut, [10] and Satyricon. [11]
Great Indian Rock (GIR) was a multi-city rock music festival in India. The first of its kind, it was usually held annually in cities like Delhi, [1] Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Shillong, [2] with a cumulative audience of approximately 50,000 people.[ citation needed] The first GIR was held in 1997 as a two-day festival in Kolkata. [3] The festival is organized by the media and publishing company Entertainment Media Services Private Limited, which also publishes the magazine Rock Street Journal. [4] The festival was founded by rock journalist and promoter Amit Saigal, who died in 2012. Subsequently, according to Mint, the "Great Indian Rock Festival in Delhi called it a day after 15 years…in 2012." [5]
GIR started in the form of a competition amongst bands, [6] [7] where entries were called from all over the country in the form of physical cassettes and CDs. 12 bands were chosen out of more than a thousand entries at the end of an extensive week-long exercise of listening to each and every band's music which was personally conducted by the organizers at RSJ. The 12 shortlisted bands finally performed in a grand finale along with an international headliner which was the GIR Festival.[ citation needed]
Each edition of Great Indian Rock was also accompanied by an album compiling the songs of the shortlisted bands known as the "GIR Compilation," [8] consisting of 12 original compositions by 12 bands from various regions of India. The album would be circulated across India through Rock Street Journal magazine.[ citation needed] Great Indian Rock stopped being a competition in 2007. [9]
In addition to featuring Indian musicians like Parikrama, [2] Orange Street, [2] and Indian Ocean, [2] the festival has also hosted international artists like Shawn Lane,[ citation needed] Jonas Hellborg,[ citation needed] John Myung,[ citation needed] Meshuggah, [10] Tesseract, [10] and Intronaut, [10] and Satyricon. [11]