Kohima: Visitors at the Hornbill Festival this year will be singing a Happy Song, with the popular German vocal group Boney M to perform there on December 10.

Making the announcement at Rattle and Hum here today, the convener of the Nagaland Outdoors Club, Kethosituo Elvis Mepfuo, said Boney M will feature the band's lead vocalist Liz Mitchell and others.

With more than 150 million records sold, they are one of the best-selling artistes of all time. "A seven-member crew of the band will arrive on December 9 for a live performance, which has been coined Christmas with Boney M," the convener said, adding that "the band will perform original hits of the 80s and 90s".

Music lovers can book their tickets over phone. Five lucky ticket holders from each category will get to have dinner with band members, he said.

Mepfuo said though the state government will shift the International Rock Contest and music festival to Dimapur, the Boney M concert will be staged in Kohima. The idea is to host the festival in different towns, he added.

Altogether 25 bands, 22 from India and three international bands, The Kids We Used to Know' (US), Ghouls (Singapore) and North H (Bhutan), will compete at this year's edition of the contest.

Avora Records (Mizoram), Daira (Mumbai), Doodles (Bengal), Fluff Paradox (Delhi), Head Motif (Sikkim), Hidden Identity (Bengal), Highway 69 (Jharkhand), Lost Icons (New Delhi), Mount Groove (Darjeeling), Pantacrator (Meghalaya), Perfect Stick Figure Illustrations (Sikkim), Radical Change (Bengal), Seed of Changes (Bangalore), Serenade (Bengal), Sylvester the Trio (Bangalore), The Prophets (Mizoram), Titans (Meghalaya) and Trivial (Assam) are the national bands.

Yellow Beacon, Radiocity, The Great Decade and Switchblade are the local bands.