Musicians and footballers to battle it out at Red Fest

GANGTOK, 05 Jan: More than 60 bands and 100 five-a-side teams are battling for a total prize money of Rs. 260,000 in Sikkim State AIDS Control Society’s RED FEST. The 160 teams will be competing for the ‘Red Ribbon Super Band’ and ‘Red Five Football’ title.

A press release informs that the first audition of the ‘Red Ribbon Super Band Contest’ is scheduled to be held on 05 January at Namchi Municipality Hall, Singhithang for the South and West District participants. Similarly the auditions for East and North District will be conducted at Café Live & Loud, Gangtok on 08 and 09 January.
After a month long registration, a total of 62 bands from all over the State will be competing with each other for the ‘Red Ribbon Super Band’ title. The main objective of the intervention is to spread awareness on HIV & AIDS and the ill effects of substance abuse amongst the youth across the State, the release informs. The competition will be judged by a panel of four well known musicians and sound engineer, namely Albert Gurung, Donald Lepcha, Surja Solomon Rai and Diwash Rai.
Simultaneously, the ‘Red Five Open Football Tournament’ will kick off on 06 January at MG Marg, Gangtok. The first two matches at MG Marg will be played between Dzongri Club & Boys Club and between two National Girls team. The Red Five Football tournament has 100 teams participating from all over the State.
The tournament is an integral part of the RED FEST. Apart from carrying the message of HIV & AIDS, the aim of the tournament is also to promote sport culture and to acknowledge the footballers of the State, the release mentions. The Red Five tournament is designed to involve teams from each district bringing in semi finalists from South & West and its counter parts from North & East.
The fixtures will be laid out and declared by 07 January 2012. This football campaign has been made possible through the involvement of various NGOs, stakeholders and prominent footballing personalities and football coaches especially Thupden Bhutia (Sports Department), Dzongri Club, Boys Club, Jorden Karthak, District Coaches, Amos Subba, Suren Chettri, Mayel Lepcha and Milan Subba, the release adds.
The RED FEST  Media partners are Nayuma Television Entertainment and Red FM 93.5 and NGO partners HOPE Foundation, RUN, Bethzatha and SNP +.
The State level intervention, ‘RED FEST’ under Multi Media Campaign 2011-2012 was launched on 11 November 2011 and is a multi-pronged intervention targeting all sections of the society. The first phase of the RED FEST intervention, ‘POSITIVE INTERVENTION’ was conducted during the month of December 2011 involving school students.