Anti-war music festival in Thiruvananthapuram on April 12 to feature four metal bands

Close to two decades ago, a group of young rock music aficionados in the capital city got together to organise a rock and metal festival at the VJT Hall (now Ayyankali Hall) in Palayam. Titled ‘Moshpit’, the festival, which spanned over half a day, witnessed the coming together of ten bands from across the country performing to a packed audience. It was one of the rare rock festivals in the city, which sees only sporadic bursts of activity in the independent music scene, which is hard to sustain.

Now another generation of rock musicians and music fans are uniting to organise a music festival at the same venue on Sunday (April 12, 2026) to host metal bands from various States. Titled ‘K\ala/pam – Music Concert for Peace’ and organised by the collective ‘Humans of World’ (HOW), the festival goes beyond the usual objective of providing a platform for independent bands. The one reason that spurred them to organise a festival was the ongoing war in West Asia, which made them wish to do something to spread an anti-war message.