My first trip to Shillong’s two-day Cherry Blossom Music Festival took 15 hours. Yet 1970s disco funk group Boney M is performing, and R&B and hiphop sensation Akon is also performing, so it’s worth the long and certainly tiring journey.

As soon as I reach Guwahati and board the cab assigned to me, Shillong-born Punjabi driver Sachin Singh drives through the winding highway that leads to our destination, only to get stuck in a two-hour-long traffic jam at 15:00 Is. Festival venue, 20 kms from RBDSA Sports Complex. We finally reach 8.30 pm, and find that we are out of network coverage, making it difficult to tell anyone that we are in Bhoirimbong village in Ri Bhoi district of Shillong.

Bad news: I did not get Akon’s “exclusive” interview where I would have gone into detail about his upcoming album and his recently released song ‘It’s a Beautiful Day’, which is a departure from his usual sensual lyrical creations, Michael Explores his collaboration with Jackson and even asks him why he thinks he did not win a Grammy, despite his albums and songs having received five nominations at the Recording Academy’s awards show. I would have gone ahead to ‘Chammak Challo’, but I could only reach in time to dance to the only Indian song on which they have collaborated. That is the good news.

When Akon takes the stage, he takes over the place, the crowd, and the energy. He starts with ‘It’s a Beautiful Day’ and then chooses his songs from the early noughties, starting with ‘Blame On Me’ and ‘The Sweetest Girl’ through to ‘Smack That’ and ‘Dangerous’.

The mic goes off in the middle of one of their songs, but Akon keeps his cool by walking around the stage and waiting for the glitch to be fixed. One minute’s disruption is not solved by silence. The audience applauds and Akon comes on stage again and says, “Don’t worry, it happens. It happens, man! It’s okay. Well, I feel good about it because every day is a beautiful day, whether Whatever happens.” He then introduces his 2004 hit ‘Ghetto’ and plays it for the rest of the show.

After this, disco music legend Boney M came on stage.

And, here’s the better news: I get an interview with Boney M, even if it’s awkwardly taped in the green room at about 1 a.m. in the middle of a photography session with her on-stage collaborators, The Shillong Choir.

When member Mazzie Williams was asked about the festival and her experience in India, she responded by posing. “It’s fantastic,” she says. We made the most of the two minutes we had with him and asked him the inevitable questions, which often lead to confusion but rarely confession. But Mazzy surprisingly quickly names her favorite Boney M song: “By the Rivers of Babylon,” she says.

She is also candid about sharing the name of the new-age musician who has made it to her favorite playlist. After pondering and saying, ‘There are so many people I love,’ she focuses on “Ed Sheeran.”

Boney M’s Mazzie Williams | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Although this short interview doesn’t give us enough insight into how Boney M views the evolution of the global music industry, we steal almost half an hour from his 40-minute long performance to keep the crowd dancing to his hit songs, like ‘Rasputin’, ‘Brown Girl in the Ring’.

If our first day ends with ‘Brown Girl’ and another heavy jam at Hotel Taj Vivanta, Shillong, the second day starts with ‘Brown Munde’ – a Punjabi rendition of Bollywood singer Kanika Kapoor . She sings original and cover songs ranging from ‘London Thumkada’ to ‘Mundeya To Bach Ke Rahi’.

Their show is followed by British electro-pop group Clean Bandit, featuring a violin, cello and two daring break dancers. He sang some of his hit songs, including ‘Rokakabe Baby’.

The festival, based on the theme of the Year of Legends, attracted approximately 50,000 people this time and with Japan as its partner country, it featured J-pop sensations Zombie-Chang, Amaiwana, DYGL, Nonok, Newspeak and Lilies & Remains in the Welcomed Japan. The arena featured food, fashion, calligraphy and origami stalls that depicted Japanese culture to Indians.

“What I love most about the festival is the crowds – the energy is amazing,” says Natalie, a student from Meghalaya. Recalling her favorite part, Amrita Sinha from Assam says, “I came here just for Clean Bandit. I love her song ‘Rockabye Baby’ because that song really inspires you as a woman.

We met Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma to get information about the festival, which is organized by Meghalaya Tourism and managed by Rocksky EMG. “We contribute about ₹2 crore to the festival,” he says. A musician himself, he has started the Meghalaya Grassroots Music Project to promote local musicians.

As far as the traffic situation of Shillong is concerned? “They say, there are two things in Shillong you cannot predict: weather and traffic,” he smiles.

The author was in Shillong on the invitation of Shillong Cherry Blossom Festival 2024