ISKCON devotees are set to participate in an Interfaith Battle of the Bands to be held at the University of Florida in Gainesville on Wednesday, November 20th.

The event will be held at Flavet Field, a large outdoor venue, from 6pm to 8pm. Nine different acts, from various different Christian and Jewish faiths as well as the Vaishnava faith, will perform onstage.

Acts will include a 23-person choir, a dance crew, and several bands. On the Vaishnava side, Kalakantha Das, president of Gainesville’s Krishna House, will perform a poetry duet along with Rabbi Josh Kaplan.

The Vaishnava faith will also be represented by Moment of Truth, a “Krishnacore” band with members from Gainesville’s Krishna House and the Alachua ISKCON community.

University of Florida students, of course, already know the Krishnas well through their delicious Krishna Lunch, served at the Plaza of the Americas every Friday. But Moment of Truth’s performance is likely to be something quite different from anything they’ve seen Krishna devotees do before.

The band will perform a hard-rocking set of Shelter cover songs. Shelter, a hardcore band formed by Raghunath Das (Ray Cappo) and popular in the 1990s and early 2000s, introduced many young people to Krishna consciousness. And Moment of Truth are hoping that their deep philosophical lyrics will get the UF crowd to think as well as to rock.

Moment of Truth features Namamrita Das, son of author Yogesvara Das (Joshua M. Greene) on lead guitar. Namamrita is a professional pilot, and often gives talks on Krishna consciousness at Gainesville’s Krishna House.

The band will also feature ISKCON News’ own Madhava Smullen on lead vocals.

The Interfaith Battle of the Bands is organized by UF’s first ever Student Government Interfaith Cabinet.

The Krishna House and ISKCON Alachua hope that ISKCON devotees will turn out at the event to show their support.