Seven-day long annual Hornbill Festival 2011 culminated Wednesday evening after the lighting of a magnificent bonfire by the newly crowned Miss Nagaland 2011 Vetolü Dawhuo and 2nd Runners up Wankam Konyak, followed by various cultural troupes at a grand finale held here at Naga Heritage Complex, Kisama.

Marking the completion of the 11th Hornbill Festival, cultural troupes from 16 tribes performed ‘Unity Dance’ following the steps of Ao Naga dance with chants, intermittent yodeling and war cries symbolizing “oneness, unity and strength” in the state’s march towards progress and prosperity.

Thousands of people thronged the Naga Heritage Complex to witness the grand finale. Open “Hornbill Dance” was also performed where tourists, visitors and guests participated and danced along with the tribal cultural troupes.

Earlier, parliamentary secretary for tourism, Art & culture Yitachu gave away certificates, Christmas cakes and cash to the all the participating troupes. A special award for maintenance of cleanest morung at Kisama was given to Kuki tribe.

Yitachu also officially pronounced the successful completion of the seven-day long festivities of the 11th Hornbill Festival.

Indigo Children wins Hornbill National Rock contest 2011
Mega Hornbill National Rock Contest, 2011 came to a rapturous ending on Wednesday night at IG Stadium, Kohima with ‘Indigo Children’ of New Delhi winning the first prize amounting to `5 Lakhs, sponsored by Airtel.

The 2nd prize of `3.5 Lakhs was bagged by ‘Grammy Winning Effort’ from New Delhi while ‘Girish and The Chronicles’ from Gangtok Sikkim bagged the 3rd prize of `2.5 Lakhs.

Altogether nine bands took part in the grand finale on Tuesday evening.
The prizes to the winners of the rock contest were given away by the representatives of various sponsors.

Altogether 24 top music bands from 11 states - Nagaland, Assam, Karnataka, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Maharastra, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Delhi took part in the four-day rock contest.

Meanwhile, ‘UDX’ and ‘Incipit’ of Nagaland also made a special appearance at the show.
On Tuesday night, Diatribe band, and not Divine Connection, as mentioned in various local papers, performed as part of the achieving band from Nagaland.

The Hornbill Music Festival is an integral event of the Hornbill Festival, organized by the Music Task Force (YRS), Nagaland. The production and event was managed by XL foundation.

Individual prizes
Best vocal: Girish & The Chronicles (Gangtok)
Best bass guitarist: Indigo Children, New Delhi 
Best lead guitarist: Girish & The Chronicles (Gangtok)
Best drummer: Final Surrender (Bengaluru)

Special categories
Best Nagaland band: Sunep Assemble Band (Nagaland)
Keyboards: Arcane Deception (New Delhi)  
Stage theatrics: 11th Hour (Shillong)