The Nagaland State AIDS Control Society (NSACS) Rock Aware – a Statewide Band Competition will officially kick start on September 10 from Kohima. Speaking to media persons at Dream café on Friday, Commissioner & Secretary Health & Family Welfare and Chairman NSACS, Menukhol John said the campaign was sponsored by the National AIDS Control Organization (NACO) with Music Task Force (YRS) Government of Nagaland as the chief patron and Legislator Forum on AIDS (LFA) as the chief event partner.
He also announced that band competition would take place at the district and state level. The district level competition will start September 10 at Kohima and travel to all districts. The grand finale will be held on October 15 at DDSC Stadium, Dimapur.
The RoadAware campaign would use music as a medium to highlight and create awareness about HIV and AIDS and also provide a platform for the musicians of the state to showcase their talents with the key message, ‘AIDS is our problem. We care!’
Project Director MTF (YRS), Gugs Chishi said music was no longer a stagnant machine, as the state government has declared music as an industry. He said only the winning bands from the district level competition would compete in the grand finale. At the grand finale, winners will receive `1,00000, `60,000, `40,000 for first, second and third respectively, sponsored by the Legislators of Phek District, while cash prize of `20,000 each for the winners of the district level competitions will be sponsored by Nagaland Legislators Forum for AIDS, he added
NSACS Project Director, Dr. Nandira Changkija expressed happiness saying over the last two years, Multi Media Campaign has been the best in the country.
Events Coordinator Theja Meru said the district level competitions have being designed as audition cum concert and appealed to the public to come and witness the show. Further, he disclosed that there will be special prizes for the 4 best individuals – Best Guitarist (Acoustic guitar), Vocalist (A Vocal misk), Bassist (A Practice bass) and Drummer (A Cymbal set) is sponsored respectively by Unitex Inc, Audio Garage, Cresendo, Wishing Well Foundation and Dream Café. An additional gifts to all four winners– a home theatre speaker each is also sponsored by and Neo Vision.