Manipur: Rock carnival ShiRock 2022 draws huge crowds in Ukhrul

Ukhrul: The ‘end’ of the pandemic has given a new lease of life to public events across India and Manipur is no different. ShiRock 2022, one of the state’s most popular annual rock musical carnivals, has drawn huge crowds, especially music lovers, from across the state at Bakshi ground in Ukhrul district as the carnival is being held after a hiatus of two years due to the pandemic.

This year, the annual rock musical carnival, part of the 4th edition of the state-level Shirui Lily festival, featured 16 of the finest rock bands from the northeast region for the rock competition. 

The competition carries a prize of Rs 10 lakh for the winner, Rs 5 lakh for the second prize and Rs 2.5 lakh as the third prize with six individual prizes of Rs 25,000 each.

The musical carnival aims to promote young talents from the region as well as to honour and raise awareness about the endangered state flower ‘Shirui Lily’. 

On Thursday, out of the 16 rock bands finalists, eight bands namely Variation, N2BM, Symphonic Illusion, Pantocrator, GMP The Band, Not Funny, Chasing Proxima and The Prophets enthralled the audience with their scintillating performances.

Similarly, the competition will witness performances from Echoes of Mercy, 1BHK, Stan Maggot, Terra Progeny, Rongbin-The Secret Realm, Manga, Oblivious and The Paradigm Shift on Friday evening.

Despite the challenging conditions due to the rains, the crowd turned up in large numbers on Thursday to witness the performances. 

‘The Monument’, a British progressive metal band, is all set to perform as the headline act for the festival on Saturday.

Over the years, ShiRock has hosted some legendary rock bands like American rock band Extreme, Scottish band Nazareth, American glam metal band Steelheart and Queensryche, an American heavy metal band.

Also read: Arunachal man surrenders airgun worth Rs 3.5 lakh

Queensryche, an American heavy metal band.

Also read: Arunachal man surrenders airgun worth Rs 3.5 lakh