Darjeeling police will create a riot of music, culture, art and tradition on Christmas week this year.

Twelve bands from across political boundaries — from Nepal to Calcutta, Shillong, Delhi, Sikkim to Darjeeling — have been selected among the 70 band entries to perform at Darjeeling MELOtea fest on December 22 and 23.

The fest preludes the annual Darjeeling Hill Marathon, the biggest running event in the region that attracts international runners, scheduled to be held on December 24. The run carries a total prize money of Rs 9.8 lakh.

MELOtea is inspired by the word melody and the famous Darjeeling tea. The tagline for MELOtea is "tea, tunes, strings".

“It was difficult to finalise the 12 bands out of an entry of more than 70 bands from across… apart from community outreach our effort is to promote, art, culture, music, tradition of the place,” said Praween Prakash, SP, Darjeeling.

A special award has also been instituted.

“Apart from the prize money of Rs 10 lakh we will also have special awards for the best guitarist in memory of the Late Sonam Sherpa, the guitarist of Parikrama,” said Prakash.

Sonam, a resident of Kalimpong died in 2020 and was a member of Parikrama, a famous band in India and based out of Delhi. The band will be judging the band competition and also performing from 6.30 pm on December 23.

Apart from the two-day band competition- which also carries one of the highest prize money for a music fest in the country at Rs 10 lakhs, the police have planned a virtual riot for serious fun.

An orange festival, photography exhibition, traditional dress fashion show and tea promotion events have
been lined up apart from tea stalls.

This year, the marathon is focusing on the de-addiction theme.

“Even during policing, our focus is on making the region drugs free. We have managed to break some of the main supply chains to the region,” said a police official.

Darjeeling police also made “run the race, defeat the chase” the year’s tagline for the marathon.