Stéphane Huët

More than 1,000 people were expected to attend the trance festival, Universal Religion, this weekend in Kakani, Nuwakot. But the four-day event has just been cancelled, 36 hours before its start.

Universal Religion 2013 Universal Religion 2013

On their Facebook page, the organising team mentioned ‘some unexpected last moment serious legal issues involving safety of the participants’ to explain the sudden cancellation of this ninth edition.

A volunteer of Universal Religion told Nepali Times they had received permissions from the Home Ministry, Tourism Board and local administrations. “We only needed the District Administration Office of Nuwakot to provide security,” he said, “but they denied us on Wednesday afternoon.”

Kosh Hari Niroula, Chief District Officer (CDO) of Nuwakot, said there was a lack of coordination with the local organisers of Universal Religion. “They only promoted their event on Internet but we never saw them – they were invisible,” he told Nepali Times.

“They were going to organise a trance party in the guise of a music festival,” said Niroula. “They would have tarnished the image of Nepal in the international community by organising events promoting sex and drugs.

The post on Universal Religion’s Facebook page provoked different reactions from the festival-goers. Some showed their support to the organisers stating that cancellation is always a possibility here for psyche events. Still, most of those who had already bought their tickets were criticising the lack of professionalism of Universal Religion.

Caroline Nitya, an Australian, had taken an annual leave to attend Universal Religion. She recognises the risks involved with hosting an international music event but feels the organisers showed a distinct lack of forward planning. “I won’t come to Nepal again to attend a festival but I’ll go to Goa instead,” she told us.

Many tourists like Nitya travelled from different countries to attend Universal Religion.

Universal Religion 2015 had an international line-up of 70 artists, including big names such as Avalon and Kalya Scintilla. The event was announced in January and 600 tickets have already been sold.

The main concern of Universal Religion is now to refund the participants. “We’ll then see if we can organise alternative gigs in Kathmandu,” added the volunteer from Universal Religion.

In the meantime, a group of festival-goers created a Facebook group “universal religion alternative” to find a plan B for those who have already arrived in Nepal.