Already blessed with a trance music dating back to the days of the good-old hippies, Goa is now fast evolving into a popular destination for EDM or Electronic Dance Music festivals.
Already hosting as many as three major EDM festivals, mostly centered around the end of the year, the festivals are turning out to be a big draw of tourists.‘Vh1 Supersonic’ alone has claimed that it will attract as many as one lakh people for its festival in December in Goa. That is close to one-tenth of the State’s population.
“Goa was the favourite destination for live dance music scene that developed in the 1980s as a seasonal paradise for ‘trance dance’ parties led by pioneer DJs. While the genuine Goa scene, Goa Trance, and subsequently psy-trance, flourished around the world, the EDM festivals, grew to become recreational destinations for the global travellers,” Jaideep Singh, Senior vice-president and Business Head — Integrated Network Solutions of which organises VH1 Supersonic told The Pioneer.
Each year around 30 lakh tourists or, atleast, twice its static population visit Goa.Singh believes that the EDM scene in Goa is still developing, with it likely to be the most popular genre of music among the young urban Indian.
“The EDM has become an integral music genre in India, especially among the youth. Its popularity is growing with music aficionados being exposed to this sound. This has been credited to the influx of international DJs performing in the country,” he said adding that the tone was set in the year 2012 when India witnessed a surge in live music events. Since then, music events have continued to hold a large share in the overall live events pie.
Percept, on the other hand, which claims its festival ‘Sunburn’ is Asia’s largest said that at the Goa scene the audiences have already ‘matured’.
“last season...we were able to feature 8 out of the world’s top 10 DJs, which is exceptional for any market in the world. But we also dedicated stages to different genres like underground, techno, deep house, drum and bass, and more...We still get the most massive crowd at the main stage, but the maturity of the market can be seen in the number of fans found on the other 7 stages of Sunburn,” a representative for Percept said.
“last year we had fans from 32 different countries flying into Goa to join us,” he said reflecting the popularity of the music.The festivals also succeed in drawing several celebrities including cricketers, bollywood stars, who promote themselves by being present at these festivals, only adds to the brand value that these festivals claim.
“Whether from sports or Bollywood, musicians to fashion designers, they have all been at Sunburn for 8 years. It’s not a new thing. You can actually see the influence of EDM in Bollywood movies, which is fascinating and exciting. Celebs are a regular feature, but the good news is they think Sunburn is cool and Sunburn thinks celebs are cool. We have accepted each other as family,” a Sunburn representative said.
The first in-line of the festival is Oktoberfest, held in the end of October, a season starter. This is followed by numerous other festivals like the Goa Beach Grind, as well as club parties that make up a string of events leading up to the main event.
“We don’t organise our music festival at the end of the year. Instead we organised Oktoberfest at the start of the tourist season. We are the first of the many music festivals that are held in Goa,” Munna Ruknuddin, Festival Director, Oktoberfest Goa said.The organisers claim they invest as much as Rs10 crore into each festival they organise. “Investments are related to the size and technological experience of each event, and it varies from Rs10 lakh to Rs10 crores, depending on the size of the event,” the Sunburn representative said.