Taking advantage of the May Day public holiday, seven bands from top information technology companies based in Bangalore, the technology hub of India, performed in front of an audience of more than 600.

Riju Mukherjee, 25, a senior developer with the Indian arm of German-based SAP AG, a business software maker, said the concert gave him a chance to forget job fears in the IT industry.

"Here (at the concert) I am my own boss. I can create my own rules. I forget all the worries especially of job security," Mukherjee, a drummer with the band Saptak (Seven) said.

"At times I feel scared looking at the way where the (software) industry is heading for. Job security now, I think, is an illusion. But in here I escape that scare and insecurity," he said.

Indian software companies' growth has been hit by the global economic slowdown and a cut in technology spending by foreign firms, especially in the United States.

Growth rates ranged between 120 percent and 150 percent two years ago, but plummeted to between 6 and 15 percent in the last fiscal year, leading to many companies laying off software employees.

Bands from Wipro Technologies, India's third largest software exporter, HP, business process outsourcing firms such as Msource and 24/7 Customer Asset also participated in the show.

"Software code writing is sedentary stuff," said R. Premkumar, manager of the No Klue band made up of Wipro employees. "When we practice and now perform in front of a huge audience definitely the worries fade away.

"One does not think of a global slowdown or the bugs in the software or our jobs," said 27-year-old Premkumar. "On stage there are no senior managers or project managers to stand on top of us."

Most of the bands were formed just six months or a year ago.

Biraj Uppal, 25, a trained Indian classical music singer and Saptak vocalist said being a part of a band meant she could forget about the tension of her job.

"This is the time when I let my hair down and forget all the stress I have accumulated during a week or a day," she said.

Chris Avinash, organiser of the event, said the show was designed not to be a competition as the techies faced pressure at work every day.

"They are not music professionals. The event was designed in such a way as to avoid competition. Everyday in different forms we experience competition. So we thought this event would let them unwind," Avinash said.

SPACE.WIRE