Last weekend, from January 8, 2016, to January 10, 2016, the folks at xBhp Assam brought the people of Guwahati some cheers and joy as they once again led from the front in organizing Metropolis- the Urban Winter Festival 2016. The Metropolis festival is Guwahati’s answer to the national and international urban festivals, which gives a stage for the people of Assam to showcase their culture and creative talent.
This year, the theme of the festival was “The Aqua Kingdom Rises.” The people witnessed a lovely Metropolis pre-promo on 13th December 2015 as Michael Learns To Rock, the Danish band gave Guwahati a brilliant show. This year Metropolis witnessed a huge crowd on the opening day as Assam Chief Minister Mr. Tarun Gogoi inaugurated the biggest urban festival of the region in Nehru Park and Uzan Bazar Ghat as the venue.
xBhp Assam being an important and integral part of the celebration, this year also had lined up a list of events presented by the club. Also there was a lovely installation set up by the club members which had a snow capped camping site with a bike made of bamboo, aluminium, cardboards etc. having a Ghost rider dummy sitting on it. Later on the day, xBhpians from Meghalaya joined in the festival site forming a bigger xBhp Camp.
The evening of the first day of Metropolis had a boy B-boying and Popping battle amongst the dance enthusiasts from the region. A huge number of participants came and the crowd went electric as the dancers gave an extra-ordinary challenge to each other. The second day of the fest had competitions like Survival of the Fittest- Search for the best biker, the B-boying and Popping finals and a lovely show presented by the BMX and MTB kids.
Day three, the final day started with a bang as xBhp Assam gave the people of the city a thrilling Motorcycle Freestyle Show which featured the Stunt Infected Squad. Thousands of people gathered in the Assam State Zoo premises, which was the venue for the show. The people went wild as the stunt riders presented their set of spine chilling wheelies and stoppies with all the other moves from their book. The team had 4 riders performing on geared motorbikes and two non-geared bikes. They were accompanied by 3 young MTB bicyclists. After the show, xBhp had a BMX battle among the riders from Assam and Meghalaya. The fantastic show gave the people an experience which they never had before.
Apart from the shows presented by xBhp Assam, there was a long list of other activities during the three days of the urban winter festival which included Rap Battle, Beat-Boxing Challenge, Acoustica (Acoustic band competition), Workshops, photography exhibitions, Rock band performances, a tattoo convention and many more things.
Text: Kaushik Dutta
Photos: Alchemy Pixels, Siddharth Majumdar
