The Ocean Collective Invite Fans To Send Turds To Indian Hotel

We think it’s pretty safe to say that when progressive metal band - The Ocean Collective travelled all the way down to the subcontinent from Germany to play at the Great Indian Octoberfest, the last thing they probably expected was to be held hostage at a “5 star hotel”, rescued, eventually, by the German embassy. They had such a terrible time that they’ve justifiably invited fans to send the Matthan hotel 'poop' in a box, if they feel like it. The band also provided a link to this delightful website - just in case you’ve ever wanted to send someone a little present and don’t want to put in the effort yourself (plus, you can even pay by dogecoin!).

The embassy was compelled to intervene when the Berlin based band was not permitted to check out of the Matthan Hotel in Bangalore. The hotel allegedly held the group back forcefully because the Octoberfest team – and more specifically, their sponsors at Kingfisher, apparently hadn’t cleared their dues. The Ocean Collective released a long statement about their exasperating experience on their Facebook page. Here’s an excerpt:

“When we attempted to leave, hotel security assaulted us, shouted at the Tuk Tuk drivers and intimidated them so that they would not take us, and finally forced us to go back into the hotel lobby, where we had to wait for 3 hours, while a team of arrogant managers and hotel henchmen were discussing things among themselves, to no avail.” They also added; “We were not involved with the booking nor the payment of our hotel bill in any way and did not have any contract or even email correspondence with this hotel, it all went through The Great Indian October Fest and their sponsor Kingfisher / UBI.”

They were finally allowed to leave after contacting the German Embassy, barely making in time for their gig at Vapour.

The German embassy refused to divulge any details, but confirmed that the incident took place. The good people at Matthan however, denied the allegations entirely, releasing this mildly passive-aggressive statement: "Nothing of the sort happened, but if they claim to have evidence, they can share it with us so we can take necessary action”, though they did acknowledge that the booking was made by “a third party” and that they received the payment the same evening.

Unfortunately Octoberfest hasn’t just messed up with The Ocean Collective. We’ve also got reports from a number of local bands that did not receive any payment, with the latest update being that Kingfisher will be clearing these within the coming weeks. Something that should have been done directly by the promoter.

Despite all the chaos however, The Ocean Collective thankfully managed to have one packed, successful performance at Vapour in Bangalore. Here’s hoping their next trip down will be better.

Words: Diya Gupta