Great Indian Rock (GIR) is the first multi-city rock music festival of India. It is usually held annually in the cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Shillong with a cumulative audience of approximately 50,000 people. The first GIR was held at Kolkata in 1997. It is organized by the media and publishing company Entertainment Media Services Private Limited, more popularly known as "RSJ" , which is an abbreviation of Rock Street Journal, being the first rock music publication of India, also owned by the same company. According to media and industry sources, GIR is expected to make a come back in the year 2016 in its original format of a nationwide competition and will be held in multiple cities in India.
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Format
GIR started in the form of a competition amongst bands, 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. Each edition of GIR was also accompanied by an album compiling the songs of the shortlisted bands known as the 'GIR Compilation'. The GIR Compilation became extremely popular amongst the followers of the festival and was widely circulated in all parts of India through the RSJ magazine. However, GIR ceased to be a competition in the last two editions of the festival in 2009 and 2010.
History
GIR was first conceptualized and released in 1995 as an album, being the first 'GIR Compilation' released along with the highly circulated "Rock Street Journal" magazine. The album consisted of 12 original compositions by 12 bands from various regions of India. It was produced at the Business India Television Studios, Uday Park, New Delhi. The cover was designed by students of the National Institute of Design and BiTV employees Amitabh Roy and Indrajit Nattoji. The firecracker image on the album became hugely popular and was appreciated among the brewing music community. GIR was an attempt to bypass the mainstream selling music and bring focus to the existing generation of independent musicians that lacked an organised platform to showcase their talent in music.
Popularity
The success of GIR was in bringing together a nationwide community of musicians and building an audience under one umbrella. It proved to be the most iconic platform for any upcoming independent musician or bands who gained instant visibility and opportunity to grow in their respective careers. GIR became the mecca of rock music in India. The added featuring of international bands and artists like Shawn Lane (USA), Jonas Hellborg (Sweden), the legendary John Myung from Dream Theater (USA) and many more big names made GIR the largest iconic music festival of India.