Most festival announcements are a font size competition. Whoever gets the biggest letters on the poster wins. Ziro Festival of Music looked at that system and said no thanks.
The 13th edition of India’s favourite mud, mountains and music situation kicks off today, 24 September, and runs till 27 September in Ziro Valley, Arunachal Pradesh. More than 40 artists from India and abroad are on the bill, and organisers say the festival is running “without a traditional headliner hierarchy,” as reported by PTI via ThePrint.
Who Is Playing
The lineup is a pleasingly chaotic mix of veterans, regional heroes and international acts.
Indian veterans and big names: Sukhbir, Sneha Khanwalkar, Midival Punditz, Shakthisree Gopalan, Shanka Tribe and Parikrama. Rolling Stone India also lists Kerala rapper Vedan and producer Karan Kanchan among the heavy hitters.
Northeast and regional acts: Tripura busker Sukesh Suklabadya, Manipur’s Chingleipak Collective and Yelhomie, Sikkim’s Tribal Rain, Nagaland’s Temsu Clover, Mizoram’s Mood Station, Assam’s Novo and Arunachal’s own David Angu.
Rap, indie and classical: Bihari rapper Shikriwal, Kaali Duniya, Swara Oza, plus classical musicians Sarwar Hussain and violinist Apoorv Krishna.
International: Sri Lanka’s Yohani, Algeria’s Fati Teniri, Palestinian French producer Isam Elias, Nepal’s Phosphenes, Thailand’s GYMV, the Philippines’ Talahib and Korea’s Moher.
The PTI report lists participating countries including Algeria, Thailand, Palestine, Switzerland, South Africa, South Korea, Nepal, Ireland, the Philippines and Sri Lanka.
Names Worth Circling
Two bookings stand out. Vedan, the Thrissur rapper whose songs tackle caste, class and resistance, won the Kerala State Film Award for Best Lyricist in 2025 and has become one of the most talked about voices in Malayalam hip hop. Seeing him in the Arunachal hills is exactly the kind of cross country booking Ziro is known for.
Then there is Yohani, the Sri Lankan singer whose “Manike Mage Hithe” became a pan Indian obsession in 2021. She is the closest thing this lineup has to a viral headliner, and she is billed as an equal. That tells you how seriously the organisers are taking the no hierarchy promise.
What Is New This Year
- Cosmos: For the first time, the festival is introducing an informal space for spontaneous jams, artist interactions and unscripted performances. Basically, an official version of what used to happen around campfires at 1 am.
- Circuit Mixers finale: Ziro will host the final chapter of Circuit Mixers, an international electronic music exchange supported by the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia, featuring Zequenx (India), Naledi Chai (South Africa), Lua Jungck and Owelle (Switzerland). Earlier residencies took place in Johannesburg and Montreux.
- Irish residency: Irish folk band Saltaire will run workshops and collaborate with local musicians. Supported by Culture Ireland and the Embassy of Ireland in New Delhi, it is Ireland’s debut partnership with the festival, timed to commemorate Ireland’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union.
The Apatani Part Matters
Ziro is on Apatani land, and the festival leans into that. The programme includes the traditional Daminda harvest dance, a presentation by the Apatani Women’s Association Ziro, and craft workshops on paddy flute (Elu) making and pottery.
ZFM co founder and director Bobby Hano said discovery and cross cultural exchange remain central to what the festival is trying to do, according to PTI.
Why The No Headliner Thing Is A Big Deal
Rolling Stone India ran a piece earlier this month titled Why We’ve Become Impossible to Impress With Festival Lineups, about how rumours, algorithms and marketing have warped the way audiences react to posters. Ziro’s answer is to refuse the game entirely: if nobody is the headliner, the discovery becomes the headline.
That is easier to pull off when your reputation is the draw. Ziro has spent more than a decade building a brand where people buy tickets for the valley and the vibe first, and the names second. It is a model most Indian festivals cannot copy, because most of them depend on one or two international names to sell out.
It also makes Ziro one of the few big stages where a Tripura busker and a Sri Lankan viral star get the same billing. For Northeast artists in particular, that is not a small thing.
What We Do Not Have
We did not find officially published attendance figures or a day by day schedule from organisers in reliable reporting, so we are not guessing at either. Tickets are listed through the festival’s official ticketing page.
Bengaluru Baath Take
Ziro remains the most romantic idea in Indian live music: go far, sleep cold, discover someone you have never heard of, come back a different person. Dropping the headliner hierarchy is a small design choice with a big message, and honestly, every festival that complains about “lineup fatigue” should take notes. If you are not in Arunachal this weekend, make a Ziro 2026 playlist from that lineup. Your algorithm could use the shock.
More On Bengaluru Baath
- One Year Without Zubeen Garg: Assam Sang For Him, And The Trial Is Still Running
- Raga Dropped 21 Tracks Called No Formula, And One Of Them Survived A Cross Border Collab That Could Not Happen
Sources
- ThePrint (PTI): Ziro Festival of Music 2026 to feature over 40 global, Indian artists
- Travel Trade Journal (PTI): Ziro Festival of Music 2026 to bring 40+ artists
- Rolling Stone India: Your Ultimate Guide to Upcoming Music Festivals in 2026
- Rolling Stone India: Why We’ve Become Impossible to Impress With Festival Lineups
- Ziro Festival official ticketing
