Gone are the days when you only had one Sunburn festival and one massive queue of electronic dance and music lovers. Over the years multiple EDM festivals like VH1 Supersonic, Enchanted Valley, Karbonn MTV Blockparty, Corona Sunsets have emerged as strong competitors on the basic premise of getting a bigger share of the dance and music frenzied fans.
With the increasing number and frequency of EDM festivals across the country, we ask industry insiders whether EDM festivals are racing towards a point of saturation.
Siddhartha Chaturvedi, CEO, Eventcrafter says, “I do not think that we are overdoing EDM festivals at all. A small country like UK has hundreds of festivals happening only in the summer and each of those are growing in terms of the various genre of music, various form of performing art needs it’s patrons to get together for it to grow. However, the problem is too much of commercialization of these festival brands. It’s smarter to keep the sanctity and aspirations of one Sunburn to happen once a year rather than making god knows how many sub properties of it. We need more quality experience.”
Harshal Kothari, Director, Rising Events said, “The fact of the matter is not that we are doing more of EDM festivals in the country but that it is a tremendously successful event genre that is loved by the youth and hence everyone is trying to come up with their own versions of it.
If you look at the college festivals also most of the students demand for an EDM DJ rather than a Kailash Kher, KK or Honey Singh who not only charge lavishly but also require a greater production value. The EDM DJ’s are not only affordable but also require lesser production value and hence more and more of these properties are coming up to cash on the young crowd and their demands.”
Sharad Mathur, CEO, EMG Entertainment responds by saying, “We are completely underdoing such genres of events in the country. If you look into the European countries and other developed nations you will find that there are so many things happening and numerous avenues to get entertained. In India looking at the population size, the condition of the bread earner and the overall per capita income of the country I don’t feel we are completely utilizing all avenues of entertainment. So definitely more of such events are required.”
On being asked upon to share their choices if asked to develop an IP event, Sharad said, “India is a vast market and a growing economy where you can be experiential as well as experimental. I particularly feel that there is space for so many more IP’s because as an events fraternity we have just started and there is a long way for us to go. I would personally love to call a motivational speaker or a knowledgeable personality like Philip Kotler and create an event around that.”
Harshal Kothari completes his stance by saying, “I think an event property surrounding kids would be a fabulous idea as that is a genre I feel has never true been capitalized upon.”
Siddhartha Chaturvedi completes his stance by saying, “It’s all at a very complex stage in our country. People want to go to such experiences because it’s more of a cool thing rather than a passion and it is these people who come in herds and make numbers go larger. What then happens is that in the process the community which is passionate patrons of the festival start shying away as they find it uncomfortable amidst these wannabes so they start seeking newer boutique experiences. And I fervently believe that this is the reason why you are witnessing a drop at Sunburn or Supersonic now.
