IndiEarth Xchange Is the Intimate, Indie Fest You’ve Always Dreamed Of

So, we hear you’re kinda done with the whole bigass festival meant for you to flex on Instagram—the kind where you lose your friends on the trek back to the car, and everyone around you is feeling as hip as a hipster. We get it. We’re almost there, especially with moral dilemmas attached to attending fests that have been harping on about their edition’s gender ratio without addressing their parent company’s toxic workplace culture.

Which is why we’re heading this weekend to Chennai—yes, Chennai—for IndiEarth Xchange—taking place on December 1 and 2. Read on to find out how you can make the coming weekend a smashing one without having to deal with the usual festival specials, ie an assembly line of cropped tops, snaking queues, haters, weak drinks, and toilets that can’t be unseen.

For the past seven years, kickass independent artists across cinema, music and media have been bypassing the big baddies of Mumbai and Delhi to descend upon Chennai for a weekend of workshops, performances, a film festival, and some hardcore networking in an atmosphere that is intimate and inclusive. A city that a lot of international and local bands bypass on their calendars, now becomes the focus with this festival that sees a mix of big name talent as also the more reticent ones. What we especially love about being here is that the conferences and workshops make you feel like a student taking in new information and insight into all things indie, the kind of stuff that makes you feel your brain is actually expanding—but interspersed with just enough music and partying to still feel like your weekend was quite the rager.

Several things, actually. Workshops range from DIY-ing a synthesiser for ultimate street cred and figuring revenue opportunities for broke independent artists, to dissecting the art and craft of songwriting, and finding a balance between mental health and creativity for musicians.

Also on the sched is a session led by Samira Kanwar, head of content at VICE India. You’ll find her talking about how you go from a pitch to publishing content, and how to track the journey of a content piece from inception to reception, by knowing how to effectively bring your ideas to life.

The conferences takes on topics like the sudden popularity and accessibility of jazz, the hard work of making movies, navigating the intersection of new tech and creativity, and how massive music festival IPs are created.

Wait till you find out who all are playing out here. First off, there is THE Shubha Mudgal, the Hindustani vocalist-composer whose distinct voice has stayed with us through decades. There is Mumbai cutie Raxit Tewari's solo electronic venture Your Chin; avant-garde rock band Daira that is known to put on gigs that help unleash your carefully tucked away madness; homeboys Big Sam who have also been part of the resident Indie100 India 2018 Program that gives musicians a chance to be mentored, recorded, mixed and mastered by top producers; and hip hop torchbearers Seedhe Maut who look like they’ll be blowing up bigass festivals real soon. There are artists hopping on international flights to perform here as well.

There is a cool selection of alternative cinema from around the world to watch too. If you still haven’t watched Kya Bolta Bantai, the VICE India documentary on the story of gully rap in India, now is the perfect time to do so.

- First, book your festival pass here: www.xchange.indiearth.com/register. There are discounts for students.
- Then, book air/bus tickets to Chennai. Staying in the city itself? Then you have no excuse. If the venue that is The Park is booked out, look for hotels nearby.
- Enjoy, and send us a postcard.

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