SulaFest 2009 - Minus the "fest"

I went to Nashik's Sula Wineyards on saturday, for the SulaFest 2009. A bunch of bands were supposed to play, and the place was to have been choc-a-bloc with activities, but I was there mostly to experience the wineyard and watch Jalebee Cartel perform live. I got to do both, and I enjoyed myself, but the "Sulafest" itself seemed to be missing.

This is what the press release promised:

...a day-long concert at the beautiful open-air, Greek-style amphitheater, set in the middle of Sulas own estate vineyards"

...a unique opportunity to not only taste wines but also participate in several allied fun activities, attend various artist shows and enjoy gourmet food, and enjoying shopping. The event will also include wine tasting sessions, Live 'Cook in Wine' sessions by renowned Chefs. Wine Accessories and Glassware sale, Wine Games and prizes. as well as the sale of various type of gourmet cheese and olive oil.

Sulafest will be offering some fabulous food offerings such as kebabs, sushi, falafel, pita bread, barbecue items and pizzas from our very own vineyard restaurant Little Italy at Sula.

As if that isn't enough of gasro-heaven, SULAFEST will be hosting the Best Vineyard Shopping Bazaar experience. The festival will see Art and craft stalls, Chocolate Cheese and Cakes Lounges, Spa Therapist, Tarot Card Readers, Relaxing foot masseurs, Jewellery stalls, Tattoo Artist, Nail Artists, Caricature Artist, Hair Braiders, Face Painters and much more.

The event will not be complete without the totally unavoidable chocolate,cake,pastry and cheese lounge at the event.

This was mostly a bunch of croc. Tthere were no activity stalls of any kind, apart from a tarot reader. Some stalls were selling what looked like designer clothes and accessories. I don't even think they made any sales, because within about an hour of the crowd turning up, the rain came pouring down, and they all had to fold up. Even the food was extremely limited in variety, - some kababs, pasta and pizzas. Nothing else.

I think from next year they should just call it the SulaConcert or something.

Anyway, if that seemed waaay too negative, it's not so, because I had a good time. It was a very relaxing trip, and the bands we heard were pretty good.

Sula had a winery-tour+wine-tasting for 150 bucks. I didn't much attention during the tour really. The wine-tasting was fun though. We tasted 6 different types of wine. Two white, one rose, two red, and one new desert wine. The last one was the only one I liked, all the others were crap. Nothing against Sula, I'm just not a wine drinker, 14% alcohol content suxx., heh.

The concert itself was to have happened at a beautiful open-air amphitheatre. The line up included-
Sridhar & Thayil
Shaair and Func
Agnee
Jalebee Cartel
Salsa dancers, YMCA act & Fire Spinners

Shridhar & Thayil were from New York / New Orleans. They did some old school blues, I think, with a lot of spoken-word interludes. Not sure what, but they were fun. Unfortunately, they over-stayed their welcome, and the rain-gods decided to intervene. The raindrops were bloody massive, and the rain started rather abruptly. So we all ran for shelter.

Some of my friends wanted to leave asap, but it's a good thing we didn't. Jalabee Cartel started playing at around 8, inside the Little Italy restaurant. This was the first time I was seeing them, and they were fabulous! Incredible really! It wasn't the complete band, just two of them, so I'm waiting to see how the band as a whole sounds. The vocalist from Agni was jamming with them for a while, doing some wierd sanskrit stuff on the mic. It was horrible, and they quickly yanked the mic away from him, heh.

Anyway, we left the venue shortly before 10, just before JC were wrapping up. We saw some pandus at the venue, and I hope they didn't create any ruckus.

Click here for pics.