Words cannot explain the feeling of standing there on the stage and performing in front of so many people away from home…. I feel blessed and grateful,” said 30-year-old Khasi singer-songwriter, Lily Sawian, who was one among the performers who performed at the ninth edition of the North East Students’ Festival, NESt Fest 2026, held on September 4 and 5. Organised by the NGO My Home India, the theme for this year was ‘The Sound of India’s Yuva Shakti’.Lily began singing when she was three or four years old. “I used to be part of the church choir back home. And my mother, Elizabeth, also used to sing at the church too,” said Lily, whose father, Peter Kharnarry, a medical doctor, also sang folk songs to her and at the church occasionally.School only deepened the pull. At Loreto Convent in Shillong, where she did her schooling, Lily sang as part of inter-school competitions and extracurricular activities. “I used to write my own poems which really helped with my songwriting process,” says Lily, whose mother would push her to participate in singing and dancing competitions in the neighbourhood.ALSO READ | Is Indian Idol scripted? Neha Kakkar debunks Sunidhi Chauhan’s ‘reality shows are fake ‘claimBut education at home was considered as significant. Lily completed her master’s in Planned Molecular Biology before turning to songwriting and performance. She began recording her songs in around 2011, the year after she finished Class 10, performing under her stage name Lily while carrying her birth name, Adoryllene. Along the way came a stint in pageants; she was crowned the first Miss Cherry Blossom in 2016 during India’s first-ever Cherry Blossom Festival in Meghalaya, where she performed her music at larger stages during the talent rounds. “It helped me to get the exposure and build my confidence. It also helped me with building connections in the industry,” says Lily. who is also drawn to jazz and blues, and has settled most comfortably into what she describes as “traditional fusion,” where she mixes the folk style with a slew of genres. “The tune comes to me before the verses … The process of songwriting varies according to the theme on which I am writing a song. If it is something that is deeply personal for me and I feel about it can take just a few hours for the lyrics to come to me. But at times it has taken months to complete a song,” said Lily, whose lyrics are usually written in Khasi and at times in English. Lily Sawian with Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia and Sunil Deodhar, founder My Home India at the NESt Fest 2026 (Image Source: PR Handout)She was nine when she saw Tipriti Kharbangar and her blues-rock band, Soulmate (which she founded alongside ace guitarist Rudy Wallang in October 2003) at the festival. “When I saw her perform on the stage, I wished that one day I could do that too – perform on stage,” she said. In 2021, things came full circle, when Tipriti praised Lily as the next generation of Khasi singers by sharing a clip of her on the former’s Instagram account.The festival was held last week at Delhi’s Talkatora Indoor Stadium with Chief Minister Rekha Gupta and Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia in attendance. “Delhi has always been home to India in all its diversity,” Gupta said, while Scindia added that the Northeast was “no longer at the periphery of India’s story” but central to it. Sunil Deodhar, founder My Home India, started the organisation after witnessing the isolation faced by Northeastern students in mainland India.Story continues below this adThe fest held over two days, also saw a fashion show of traditional North East attire, cultural performances from Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Haryana and Chhattisgarh, and sets by artistes like Siampuii Ralte from Mizoram, rapper and songwriter Moko Koza from Nagaland, singer AJ Maisnam from Manipur and singer and composer Dikshu Sarma from Assam.