On Saturday, May 24, 2025, ShiRock, the rock festival taking place as part of the Manipur state government-sponsored Shirui Lily Festival, comes to a close after hosting the likes of folk-indie act When Chai Met Toast, metallers Inner Sanctum, Gutslit, and more across five days.
On ground, photos and videos show thousands in attendance, but footage also shows a heavy security presence throughout the city of Ukhrul, the home of ShiRock. Currently under President’s Rule due to an ongoing conflict between the Meitei and Kuki groups, which began in May 2023, the state of Manipur has been grappling with ethnic tensions. In this context, ShiRock appears to be both a show of strength and an attempt to restore a sense of normalcy, bringing bands from across the country to perform. Incidentally, Israeli metal band Orphaned Land was scheduled to headline, but had to cancel owing to the “ongoing situation in their home country,” as stated by ShiRock organizers 7 Sisters Foundation president Sunny Shimrah on May 12.
Another flare-up, just as the Shirui Lily Festival kicked off, involved a bus transporting journalists being asked to cover up signage indicating it was Manipur State Transport, triggering a bandh earlier this week. In all, a total of ₹6.30 crores had been allotted to host the Shirui Lily Festival, according to the independent regional news platform Ukhrul Times.
Barring those hiccups, the festival seems to have gone off without any other major incidents. Deputy Commissioner of Ukhrul, Asish Das, had said at the time of funds being allocated, “This festival is not just a celebration of our natural beauty, but also a testament to our unity, resilience, and creativity.”
A week before ShiRock, on May 18, indie bands in Imphal did what they know best—host a DIY music festival with some of the top acts. Imphal Indie Music Festival—hosted by Phā Rekords —brought in seasoned acts like indie rockers The Dirty Strikes, shoegaze act Lo! Peninsula and rock act Meewakching, folk-indie act Eyoom, and post-punk act Body Electrik. While there were a good amount of security forces present near the festival area, Phā Rekords and Meewakching frontman Silheiba Ningombam says the fact that 3,000 people showed up for the debut edition is a testament to the hunger for live music in the state.
Ningombam and Lo! Peninsula’s vocalist-guitarist Nitin Shamurailatpam—who played their first show in three years at the Imphal Indie Music Festival—point out that it was during their Holi, local Yaoshang festival, and Manipuri New Year in March and April that more festive events began taking place.
Before that, Meewakching were among the first to play a live show in Manipur in October 2024, more than a year after the conflict began. By then, schools, colleges, and government offices had reopened. The band had released their EP The Land in 2023 and were itching to play a live gig. Ningombam says, “The first successful concert opened to the public was held in October 2024, inside Manipur University, and we were fortunate that we headlined it. It was a free-entry show organized by the students. Then, in March, there was another concert in IIIT, Manipur, which featured us, as a part of their tech fest, but it got canceled when thousands of enraged attendees who couldn’t fit in the campus protested and tried to climb walls and destroy the institution’s properties.”
Meanwhile, the likes of Lo! Peninsula spent their time writing, exchanging song ideas, and even learning how to self-produce as they gradually worked their way up to jamming together. Meewakching is prepping to release their latest album, Bildungsroman, on May 25, 2025, after band members spent time apart during the peak conflict periods. “Some of the members entirely focused on other ways to earn and sometimes included manual labor,” Ningombam says.
Elsewhere, metal bands like Dead Soviet channeled their frustrations into their debut EP Human Depredation, released in September last year. They couldn’t have a gig back then, but did host an intimate listening party for metalheads in Manipur. Though the death/thrash metal band says their “anti-religion and anti-fascist” themes have previously come under the scanner, guitarist Mavison Laishram states, “Despite the chaos, we still remain active and try to keep the scene alive with a voice. Art and music are not dead in Manipur, so [we] keep moving forward.”
The band found a willing collaborator, however, in XL Café and Billiards, a venue which was started prior to the pandemic and picked back up on live shows in 2024. While they hosted singer-songwriters and folk-fusion bands, Dead Soviet became the first metal band to play at the venue. Drummer Nongshaba Okram says, “They not only compensate the bands fairly but also provide food and beverages for the performers. Their dedication to nurturing the local music scene is exactly what we need and deserve.”
Weekly gigs have now resumed at XL Café, and Dead Soviet will perform their next gig in Imphal on July 27 as part of the inaugural edition of the gig series Hollow To Howl. Meewakching has a listening party set up for Bildungsroman on May 25, while Lo! Peninsula has lined up another gig alongside Manipur bands like Ereimang, Project RJH, Atingkok, and Meewakching on Aug. 24, 2025.
Manipuri folk-rock artist Akhu Chingangbam founded the festival Where Have All The Flowers Gone in 2014 and ran it regularly until 2022. However, Chingangbam feels there needs to be more groundwork before festivals begin as a show of strength and unity. The outspoken frontman of Imphal Talkies & The Howlers says, “The social fabric has been damaged beyond repair. We haven’t seen a scale of such conflict before. We must work collectively to find a solution and to rebuild the homes of the internally displaced people in their respective homes.”
The seasoned artist is confident that Where Have All The Flowers Gone—which has hosted rock veterans Indus Creed, a solo set by that band’s frontman Uday Benegal, singer-songwriter Ditty, and local acts—will be back “when things get better” and when their host towns are no longer red zones. “Normalcy is far away when the state is heavily militarized with central forces. Our band has announced that we won’t be playing any shows in Manipur in the near future. We will come back when we are ready,” he says. In the meantime, he and his team are focused on his initiative Nouwa Education to support internally displaced students in the state, facilitating teachers and clinical psychologists for students.
As Ningombam points out, several thousand are still in relief camps in the state. While ShiRock and Shirui Lily Festival no doubt want to spotlight a return to better days, perhaps smaller initiatives like Imphal Indie Music Festival and shows at XL Café might point to a more steady, measured way for artists and audiences to connect.
Shamurailatpam hails Lo! Peninsula’s set at the festival was one of their best, not just because they were playing after a couple of years, but also because it indicates an attempt to rebuild the live music scene. “I view it [Imhpal Indie Music Festival] as a collective effort to make it happen, from organizers and attendees. I’ve never seen such a kind of energy ever in any of the festivals. Independent musicians are being celebrated, and it was an out-of-the-world atmosphere,” he says.