Great Indian Rock (GIR) was a multi-city rock music festival in India. The first of its kind, it was usually held annually in cities like Delhi,[1] Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Shillong,[2] with a cumulative audience of approximately 50,000 people.[citation needed] The first GIR was held in 1997 as a two-day festival in Kolkata.[3] The festival is organized by the media and publishing company Entertainment Media Services Private Limited, which also publishes the magazine Rock Street Journal.[4] The festival was founded by rock journalist and promoter Amit Saigal, who died in 2012. Subsequently, according to Mint, the "Great Indian Rock Festival in Delhi called it a day after 15 years…in 2012."[5]
GIR started in the form of a competition amongst bands,[6][7] where entries were called from all over the country in the form of physical cassettes and CDs. 12 bands were chosen out of more than a thousand entries at the end of an extensive week-long exercise of listening to each and every band's music which was personally conducted by the organizers at RSJ. The 12 shortlisted bands finally performed in a grand finale along with an international headliner which was the GIR Festival.[citation needed]
Each edition of Great Indian Rock was also accompanied by an album compiling the songs of the shortlisted bands known as the "GIR Compilation,"[8] consisting of 12 original compositions by 12 bands from various regions of India. The album would be circulated across India through Rock Street Journal magazine.[citation needed] Great Indian Rock stopped being a competition in 2007.[9]
In addition to featuring Indian musicians like Parikrama,[2] Orange Street,[2] and Indian Ocean,[2] the festival has also hosted international artists like Shawn Lane,[citation needed] Jonas Hellborg,[citation needed] John Myung,[citation needed] Meshuggah,[10] Tesseract,[10] and Intronaut,[10] and Satyricon.[11]