As previously reported, Dutch melodic thrashers DETONATION will headline the Avalanchefestival in Delhi, India which begins today (February 22nd). Avalanche is the heavy-music portion of the four-day cultural Moksha festival, an annual event organized at the Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology (N.S.I.T.).

The band have also announced an additional show on February 24th at the Eastwind Festival in New Delhi, India.

Detonation bassist Otto Schimmelpenninck has issued the following update:

"Day 1??After almost 1.5 years of contact the moment is finally here: today is the day we're off to India! I've been sick for the past two days (great timing), but today I'm feeling slightly better. Hoping to catch some sleep in the airplane anyway.??I arrive at Schiphol airport around 1pm. Maarten and I are scheduled to leave around 3pm while the rest (Mike, Koen, Thomas and Martijn) will leave around 5pm. Maarten gets there at 1pm as well and we check in. Well, try at least. My full name was too long to fill out on the online booking, so the name on the electronic ticket didn't match the name on my passport. Fun fun fun. So they wouldn't let me check in and told me to either buy a new ticket or have the travel agent change the name on my ticket. I called Aditya to tell him about the problem and to contact the booking agent. Meanwhile, I called the airline and after twenty minutes of spelling out my name the guy on the phone finally assured me they wouldn't make a problem of it since it was their fault my name didn't fit in their system. One problem tackled, but problem two emerged: due to heavy weather at London's Heathrow, our flight would be considerably delayed and the flight from the other guys would be cancelled all together. Fortunately they would be able to take the same flight as Maarten as me... if they would arrive in time. Fortunately they're always early and they were on time to catch that flight. A hectic start of a long journey.??We drank a few pints at the Irish pub to kill the time and proceeded to the gate. Progress was fairly smooth from then on, although the tiresome security checks were getting annoying. ??The flight to Heathrow was the first thing to go without a hitch, although, in traditional UK manner, we started out in a traffic jam... on the airport. Apparently the fog had caused major delays for all flights to Heathrow, and all airplanes that had just landed needed to queue up. Nevertheless, we got there eventually and prepared for a long stay at Heathrow, which would last approximately four hours. We got ourselves something to eat before getting more beers at the Irish pub. The guys from ANTERIOR were at the pub, so we had the first pints of many to follow with them. All good things come to an end though and after a while we each went our own way since the guys from Anterior were taking another flight than us.??The flight was again exciting since Mike's visum appeared to be missing a stamp, but the flight crew did allow us to enter the plane. The flight sucked ass. Tropic temperatures in the cabin, tiny seats suited for midgets only, crying children, cabin crew asking you for coffee as soon as you finally got to sleep... the food was good though. Naturally we didn't get much sleep, so we were a bit wasted when we finally landed. ??Of course, the customs in Delhi weren't happy about the stamp missing on Mike's visum, which caused problems. After half an hour of friendly smiling we finally managed to get in and get ready to meet Aditya and Ajay, who were picking us up from the airport. We went to the N.S.I.T. campus with taxis, which was a great experience of traffic in Delhi: awesome!??We spent the rest of the day walking around the campus, meeting people, enjoying Indian hospitality and the guys from Anterior arrived in the course of the afternoon. ??The response here and hospitality has been great so far and looks like tonight's show will be awesome. We're really short in time and internet is not often available, so sorry for the lack of updates and pics, but hope to be able to put out another blog before we get home. Cheers!"?