O Happy Weekend Festival Day 1 at Opus, Bangalore

The three-day weekend festival that coincides with the Summer Solstice brings you complete entertainment – great live music, singer-songwriters, party bands and DJs from across the country, foosball and gaming competitions, street food, slurrrpilicious cocktails served in baltis and batlis (buckets and sippers respectively), stalls at the flea market, art exhibits, and tons of fun at the most memorable Summer festival ever! The O Happy Weekend raises funds in aid of a non-profit organization from Bangalore.
LINEUP FOR DAY ONE:

LAGORI
Lagori makes music that reflects the face of the modern Indian youth. This Bangalore-based band combines Indian classical melodies and inflections with Rock music, resulting in an interesting mix – high on energy, catchy and soulful at the same time. The band gets its name from the popular street game played in south India – Lagori. The band is fascinated by the rich diversity of culture that exists in the country — especially the evolving definition of what it means to be ‘Indian’. Having grown up in the cosmopolitan city of Bangalore – a melting pot of cultures, ideas, languages and beliefs – Lagori’s music reflects the varied influences of each band member, culminating in unique, fresh and honest sound.

JUNKYARD GROOVE
Since its formation in 2005, Junkyard Groove has seen all the highs and lows of playing in a leading band in the Indian Indie scene. They’ve opened for some of the biggest international bands in the world, including Iron Maiden, Incubus, Prodigy and more…
The current line up consists of founder and front man Ameeth Thomas on vocals and acoustic guitar, Joshua Mark Raj on guitars, bass prodigy Sajith Satya, and Shashank Vijay – a drummer who makes a 4 piece band sound like 5.
“Music is an emotion for me. It’s just storytelling. It’s like reading a book to a kid.” – Ameeth Thomas.

BRYDEN LEWIS & PARTH CHANDIRAMANI
This musical outfit was born out of a combination of Bryden’s contemporary Western influences and Parth’s background in Indian classical music, late night impromptu jam sessions involving the flute, guitar, singing, beat-boxing, along with the realisation that all these elements tweaked and produced into a groovy professional set, could be a lot of fun.
This acoustic duo has a unique expression. Having travelled across the world with the multiple music projects they belong to, they’ve picked up music styles from different cultures. Their act explores global sounds like Celtic, Country, Pop, and staying true to their Indian roots, Bollywood.
On stage, the two of them share an endearing chemistry that comes from the experimental and exciting nature of their music, combined with their entertaining individual personalities.
While Bryden and Parth are well known for their skill with the guitar and flute respectively, as a team the two of them have a whole new sound. Expect mash-ups of your favourite tunes in a manner you definitely haven’t heard before.

MICHAEL DIAS
Michael Antony Dias is primarily a guitarist and then a singer… one of the few lucky ones to have discovered his passion for music at a very early age. Coming from a musical family from Cochin, Kerala, he has been playing for over 17 years now and has been singing and performing with bands since early 2003. He currently is the front man and leader of Bangalore’s popular rock band, ‘Mad Orange Fireworks’. He also performs solo singer/songwriter gigs and collaborates with various artists across the city. Apart from performing, Michael is also one of the most sought after music teachers in the city and has handled over 80 students. He has developed quite the passion for teaching and enjoys doing that on the side when not performing.

PERFECT STRANGERS
Perfect Strangers was formed in the summer of 2013 when a bunch of talented musicians working in corporates decided to jam together and realised it sounded more than just good. Although young, the band has developed quite a following in the city, doing a mix of classic/hard rock covers and their originals which speak about contemporary issues, girlfriend problems ,anti EDM…basically whatever bothers them.

Perfect Strangers won the Brand Scan Battle of Bands organized by TAPMI, were finalists for Vodafone Battle of Bands and Hard Rock Rising…and they stopped competing after being judged by a DJ in the last one they took part in! The band is in the process of recording their first album and will be playing some of their originals first time at Opus happy weekend festival.