A Guide To The Key Experiences At Magnetic Fields Festival 2024

Prominent experiential festival Magnetic Fields Festival is gearing up for its 10th edition in Alsisar between December 6-8 this year. To mark the milestone, the music and arts event is differentiating this outing by reinventing some known spaces, hosting new ones and establishing a good few first-evers.

Familiar parts of the festival like Jameson Connects South Stage and Cosmic Disco Bar will be present in a modified avatar to accommodate more dancers while the showcase Puqaar supplements its offerings of folk music on the palace rooftop and halls with an evening of qawwali from artists from Dargah Ajmer Sharif and a night of Manganiyar musicians’ jams in the desert.

The 10th edition will also benefit from ‘Sightlines Lab’, its first-ever visual and digital expression residency in collaboration with Eyemyth that will see some of the country’s most forward-thinking visual arts practitioners like Parizad D, echofloat, Optik Bloom and Miss.Kotton take up residence in the lead-up and present a multitude of installations across the festival space. Sightlines will also tie up with the festival’s traditional-meets-contemporary music residency Fieldlines which will feature London’s well-loved dub act V.I.V.E.K collaborate with folk artists like Bhanwari Devi, Kutla Khan and Alser Khan.

New stages like The Easy Picnic, a laidback space featuring vinyl-only selectors, also debut at the festival which is slated to feature more installations and workshops than ever before for its 10th edition.

To apprise yourself of what’s on offer, we have compiled a guide to the key experiences at Magnetic Fields Festival 2024.

Jameson Connects South Stage

The stage in the palace garden most identified with its offering of live acts sees a new layout this year alongside some prominent electronica acts like Sofia Kourtesis, David August and Tom VR presenting a live set. It will also feature band performances from Bristol funk disco quintet Cousin Kula, Viennese group Takeshi’s Cashew, India’s own Dee En, as well as a group led by New York’s India-descent composer-guitarist Shubh Saran. Critically-appreciated Indian indie act Sid Vashi makes his return with his live set ‘Unreleased’, Jay Pei’s new moniker PANELIA makes the live debut of his album ‘Nothing And All At Once’ and beatmaker Kartik also debuts the live set ‘Brokenbeats & Pieces’. Festival music residency Fieldlines will also bring V.I.V.E.K and the selection of Manganiyar musicians to the stage to perform the repertoire that they would have prepared in the lead-up to the festival in their open studio set up in the palace’s Badal Mahal.

BUDX North Stage

At the heart of the Alsisar palace, BUDX North Stage keeps its walls shaking through the night with DJ sets from dance music’s modern-day heavyweights and budding Indian talent. In 2024, that’s done via New Delhi’s Lush Lata and the country’s acid-house selector Aayna sharing the bill with the likes of Ahadadream, Nikki Nair, CCL and Gene On Earth, while France-born Ecuador-raised DJ Nicola Cruz will present an extended set.

Ray-Ban Desert Oasis

When it’s not a location for afterparties and secret sets that stretch into the morning, Ray-Ban Desert Oasis is the stage to soak in the revelry of dancing in the desert for an experience not easily found elsewhere. The setting and the daytime programming bring out a different kind of set from the selectors, making it a musical “oasis”. This year, it hosts a showcase curated by prominent crate-digger Nishant Mittal aka Digging In India, who brings along Hong Kong’s Ani Phoebe and sampling-whiz Lapgan; extended sets from The Ghost who will also team with Gene On Earth to form Coast 2 Coast; and sets from Poly-Ritmo and Moe.

Corona Sundowner

A space which comes with a high reputation for Magnetic Fields regulars, Corona Sundowner tends to be unfailingly packed over 2 evenings as attendees gather on one of the palace rooftops to witness the sunset to some suited live and hybrid sets. This year, Corona Sundowner will see India’s Killzen, Flux Vortex, Sublime Sound and SYEYL perform alongside Portuguese DJ-producer Caroline Lethô and an atmospheric electronica set by Tom VR.

BUDxYard

A dancefloor for late-nighters on the palace gardens, the styles heard on BUDxYard are far-reaching and in that experimentation, prone to offering some of the festival highlights. This year, the space will see DJing maestro Jane Fitz, leftfield-meets-psychedelia DJ Jay Carder, DIY raves-specialist livwutang, dark dance sounds-purveyor RHR, early dubstep connoisseur V.I.V.E.K, Indian selectors Nik and Bombie, as well as the festival’s first-ever DJ from Nepal, YNZN.

Jameson Connects Underground

Inside the Alsisar palace, the stairs descend down to a dance den that is Jameson Connects Underground. Often home to some high-octane sets, the subterranean dancefloor will see an exploration of sounds from the global south with Focus Group Sound System and Poly-Ritmo, as well as sets from Refuge Worldwide co-founder Richard Akengbin and regular host Moe.

Cosmic Disco Bar

A glittering, cosy and steamy disco-dedicated tent in the desert that was first inaugurated in the 2019 edition, Cosmic Disco Bar is one of the spaces getting a makeover to mark the 10th edition. A place for non-stop fun grooves through the night, the stage will see longtime Tresor and Panorama Bar resident, Dave DK, an extended set by crate diggers The Ghost, and a lineup curated by Dynamite Disco Club, calling on Japanese DJ Daisuke Miyamoto, Bangkok-based DJ Pam Anantr, DDC-founder Stalvart John, and more secret sets.

The Easy Picnic

An entirely new space for the Alsisar edition of Magnetic Fields Festival, The Easy Picnic is a laidback spot in the palace lawns for vinyl-only spots. Understandably, it will be helmed by some discerning crate-diggers, namely Aditya, Jogita, PhreshPrince, D80, Nishant Mittal and Ani Phoebe.

Puqaar

The stage dedicated to showcasing folk sounds moves around this year, kicking off the festivities as always on the palace rooftop with a blend of traditional and electronic by Global Groove Collective on Friday, before heading to the palace’s Darbar hall for ‘O Gaanewaali’, a tribute to women who have shaped the repertoire of Hindustani traditional music. On the final day, Puqaar moves to the desert for some qawwali for the first time ever in the festival and culminates with jam sessions between Manganiyar musicians under starlit skies.

The Peacock Club

The festival’s most flexible space, the cabaret-inspired velvet-draped Peacock Club hosts ‘10 Years of Rhythm Section’, a showcase by one of UK’s most popularly eclectic label featuring label-head Bradley Zero alongside Wallace and Private Joy. On Saturday, things get extremely leftfield with a showcase by Indian label Social Isolation which will bring ambient and experimental sets from Catatacat, Sacred Seeds, Pardafash, Masta Justy, Songs for a Tired City and Kaldi Moss. One of the last sets of the festival takes place in this space in the form of ‘Paradise’, where drag performers from ‘Dragalactiq’ will supplement an extended set by DJ Voices for a celebration that sees people lining up each year.

During the daytime, The Peacock Club also hosts the festival’s storytelling showcase ‘Magnetic Words’, this time curated by Raji Kaur Aujla for interconnected narratives split across six chapters dealing with inclusive Indian futures. The Peacock Club will also host the first-ever edition of ‘In Tune’, an intimate presentation curated with Refuge Worldwide that is centred around connectedness as the likes of Nishant Mittal and Moe open up their record collection while CCL presents an ambient set.

Installations & Workshops

An experiential festival, Magnetic Fields makes itself an immersive event with the help of its many installations and workshops which are more in number this time than in any previous edition. The festival’s first-ever visual arts residency in collaboration Eyemyth called ‘Sightlines’ will augment the spaces all around the festival site with interactive digital art installations while SHED will handcraft games using local methods and materials. Sound practitioners from Auroville will also curate sonic experiences made to deepen listening and decompress as part of ‘Svaram Sound Experience Presents Sound Oasis’.

Compass will bring back their playful installations that allow you to connect with strangers and also introduce a confession booth, message boards and postcards to the future. Additionally, there will be workshops in perfumery, block-printing, sari draping rituals, stargazing, expressing through brush and more.

The crew behind 'Dragalactiq' will also feature two installations-meets-performance, reimagining queer mythology with 'Dragalactiq Dominion' and presenting an inter-galactic queer fairy love story with 'Multisensory Dispensary'.

Afterparties

The festival often features secret sets specially for its late hours. The 10th edition of the Magnetic Fields Festival will feature two afterparties, both taking place at undisclosed locations in the festival. One of them, The Resident Advisor Saturday night session will host a performance by Yazzus, known for her heavy 4x4 grooves, alongside a live set by Indian artist Monophonik. Meanwhile, the Ray-Ban Afterparty will highlight 20 years of Hyperdub, with sets from label head Kode9 and Scratchclart, offering a mix of experimental and forward-thinking electronic music.

Magnetic Sanctuary

The festival’s decompression zone presents an opportunity to get a respite from the festival intensity and connect deeper with yourself and the people around you by bringing handpicked health, movement and fitness practitioners to the desert. The area offers everything from breathwork workshops, meditations, different forms of yoga, massages, cacao ceremonies, sound baths and relaxed spaces deep into the night.

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For more information about the festival and its experiences, head to its website here.

Image by Parikshit Deshpande