Nikhita Gandhi curates an all-women music festival: Want to give a niche experience to women where they could just be

Nikhita Gandhi is creating something unique for women artistes in the music industry as the singer is curating an all-women music festival named Sonic Tigress. “Our goal was to make it 100% women, from the technical crew to the security to like everything as in ‘by women for women’. We’re currently 90% in terms of that,” she says.

The 33-year-old adds, “I didn’t want to make it like a social thing, because we have enough of those. I just wanted to give a very unique niche experience to women where they could just be. Bringing this to a reality has been a dream come true.” She informs that the music festival will take place in Bengaluru on March 29, and not just musical acts, it will also feature acts by female comedians. While the singer doesn’t have a final lineup of artistes ready yet, she does inform teaming up with American singer Vidya Vox.

Nikhita reveals that curating this festival has given her a glimpse of how there is a lack of female technicians in the industry: “We really struggled to find a woman sound engineer and women light engineers. They are very male-dominated jobs, and you don’t see many women in it. We somehow managed to find a female sound engineer, but we’re still left to find a female light engineer, because that’s something that we just have not come across. I hope that because of this movement, more women feel inspired and motivated to take up these professions.”

While the Indian music industry has a wide market for female singers, there are still very few female names in the other fields, be it composing or lyricist. Mention that to Nikhita and she says, “I wouldn’t say I miss the female energy, because I feel like a lot of men that I work with in the music industry, are very inspired by the women around them. They really capture the essence of it. They’re women worshipers and it shows in their work. But I do feel that the women’s perspectives that comes with bringing up women producers and composers, it’s usually a very different and fresh take. I would love to hear more of that because I think it would change the scape in the music industry.”