Universal Religion, Nepal, 2012

And with the breath-taking views of Nepal, staying at luxurious Pokhara's Fulbari Resort, smooth organization of the event, with a very beautiful and peaceful crowd in this world, Universal Religion Nepal 2012 was, no doubt, a success. A party at one of the highest stages (~900 meters above sea level) in the world, it was a lucid dream that went by and I kept asking for more. (All pictures that you see forth are taken by my friend who accompanied me to the festival) 
 

Reaching Pokhara in whatever means of transportation you are using, you get to see the earthly tranquil small towns, friendly people, other tourists and of course the pretty local Nepali girls who will make you go nuts when they talk to you with the cutest smile on their face.

My trip to Nepal was for one sole reason, my faith, my religion: music. This is the language everyone understands, everyone goes with it and no one fights over it.

I was a hardcore drum and bass listener until a friend of mine introduced me to progressive house, and another friend pulled me to psy trance. Honestly I like all of the above based on my mood and at the festival I got a good hearing of everything.

The stage setup was in two places. With 140-160 bpm (beats per minute) psy at the primary location and a smaller stage next to the pool with lower bpm music as the secondary location. Stage 2 was playing some really mellow house stuff on day one, and on day two we were blessed with progressive followed by a little drum and bass as well, yay! However for the most, the primary stage was clearly the main attraction with the speakers exploding beats non-stop for 54 hours. Assuming the day's average bpm is 150, with a total of 54 x 60 minutes duration, we were charged with around 500,000 beats. If those speakers had souls, I would feel sorry for them.

The resort guys gave the option to camp around in the greenery similar to some of the out in the forest festivals. We instead took a room but many people, especially from Israel preferred to camp because those guys, now that I have understood, are the party masters.

Everyone leaves you alone, everyone minds their own business, although everyone feels approachable. The crowd was jumpy, happy, cheery, energetic and as beautiful as if hand picked. If such a crowd doesn't bring a smile on your face, and does not make your body move, then I don't know what will.

Nepal is a perfect mix of ethnic culture and western influences with commercialization at a tolerable level. Clearly, locals have welcomed and accepted the new culture, molded it in their own, unlike the idiotic conservative society of Bangalore (where I am from). Talking generally about Nepal, the weather during the summer is hot with mild cool breeze during the day, and cold (not very) during the nights and early mornings. Not to mention the food I ate at any place was as tasty as it would give me mouth goosebumps every time. The quality of food was pure. I can say that because I live in the capital of bad food known as Bangalore. The kind of shit restaurants feed us over here in the name of food has made mosts' stomach go bad. Anyway, great change for a few days for me. The only complaint I had was the locals just wanted to make as much money as possible seeing that we were tourists and assumed rich. We were being charged quite some good money for very small things. However, all's well if it feels worth in the end.

I just can't wait for another festival which fits in my schedule. Do not forget to check out more pictures, this blog post is pretty much useless if you miss out the fantastic pictures taken by my buddy. Find the link below to his album.

Link to the Album