Heading towards the Khukri Music Festival, held in Everest Hotel, New Baneshwar, Kathmandu, on Saturday, I was excited but a little weary about how it would turn out.

The majority of ambitious entertainment events that happen in Kathmandu, as far as I know, overpromise and underdeliver. The buildup is huge, social media promotions are intense, and the hype is great—only for it all to dissipate during the event. I was hoping this wouldn’t be the case with Khukri Music Festival and for the most part, I was right.

Organised by Garage Entertainment and ambitiously titled the ‘Nepal’s Happiest Festival’, the event kicked off around 3 pm. The first to climb on the stage was Prabesh Kumar Shrestha, with his captivating voice. He performed hits like ‘Aau Tmi’, and ‘Adhuro’, which were all greeted with a loud applause by the audience.

Shrestha, then, began singing a song from Indian artist Anuv Jain. He interacted well with the audience and introduced all his tracks with a short backstory. While singing ‘Aau Tmi’, which has an impressive 42 million views on YouTube, he revealed that he had written it in the corridor of his house and recorded it on his phone. “If you listen with headphones, the sound on the left side is more dominant than the right,” he added.

After the end of every performance, the hosts, Sanjay Silwal Gupta and Roneeshma Shrestha took the stage to hype up the audience. While their prompts, like “Make some noise” or “Put your hands in the air”, did the job—the attendees would indeed cheer very loudly—it got a little too repetitive by the end of the show.

I also made a lot of noise when Sushant Ghimire, with his band Sushant and Raga, took the stage. His passion for music was palpable through his performance. Ghimire started with the slow-paced ‘Ajambari Maya’, gradually increasing the tempo, concluding with ‘Jindagi Sarara’. He also conversed with the audience about self-love and life’s challenges.

By the time he was ending his set, the audience had taken to Ghimire so much that we all chanted for an encore and he indulged us all, performing one last track. He then thanked everyone and admitted that he got so excited that he forgot some lyrics and left the stage.

The next performers, Prajina and Regan, also started with a slow-paced song. When she sang the much loved ‘Yo Sahar’, the audience hummed along. However, the crowd’s voices got louder during her cover of SZA’s ‘Kill Bill’. It’s disheartening to see most Nepali youths—particularly those living in cities—prefer listening to English songs rather than Nepali ones.

As Prajina and the band finished, the host, Gupta, took the stage for another one of his energetic quips. However, he faced some technical issues with the mic and by the time it was fixed, the audience’s excitement had gone down a notch. Before Gupta, Prajina also had some issues with the mic.

The loudest cheer of the night was for Swoopna Suman and The Asters. Again, the anticipation dwindled a bit as the band was nearly twenty minutes late to climb the stage. Suman made his entry to a loud cheer and performed his hits. ‘Kasari Bhanu’, ‘Bacha Vayo’, and ‘Je Chhau Tmi’ were received with loud cheers. I liked how these songs were performed as they were released originally—without the extra beat drops or remixes.

By the time, the band was done, people had started walking towards food stalls and bars.

Cheers for The Elements also rivaled that of Swoopna Suman and The Asters. Despite also taking the stage about twenty minutes later, the band delivered an energetic performance.

The event was quite enjoyable, as the performers put on a great show. However, the overall experience did leave some things to be desired. No event is perfectly handled, but the basics—such as the functionality of the mic and sound system and getting the stage ready in time—should be done well.