Sunburn to ‘FLY’ again

EDM is soaring to the sky in Hyderabad. One of the biggest live music shows where it seemed like the entire city was there to swing and sway to the youngest DJ Martin Garrix, the extremely successful Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike event, and the euphoria created by the upcoming David Guetta performance at Sunburn Arena, Hyderabad is a proof of EDM and dance music taking over the western musical scene in the city.

“The much awaited Sunburn Arena with legendary international DJ David Guetta will see a multi-city tour from 13 -15 January, 2017 spanning Mumbai, Hyderabad (January 14) and Delhi,” shares Manuj Agarwal, CEO of Percept Live.

So much is the love for EDM that Hyderabadi music fanatics are making a beeline for the ongoing Sunburn 2016 event in Pune too.

It was Sunburn, which is now the biggest music festival in India, that has been the main force behind pushing the Bollywood dominated music scene in India towards an EDM festival.

Karan Singh, CEO of Sunburn, shares, “Many events and pseudo festivals were planned, some were held, but basically nobody was willing to show any sustained long-term commitment. Sunburn started off in Goa in 2007 as an international dance music festival for people from all over the country.”

“It was an uphill challenge. The easiest thing would have been to pack up and move on. But Percept was inspired by the growing response and popularity, and started to see that EDM could be relevant in India.

And so instead of scaling back or exiting, we raised the game further. And Sunburn has only grown from strength to strength over the past decade,” he adds.

Explaining the reason for the popularity, Karan says, “EDM is the music of the 'screenagers', and with its revolutionary cutting edge digital sounds and melody, it has become the prime choice of the rising youth populace in Hyderabad.

The attendance has been steadily increasing, with our recent event with DVLM being our biggest yet in Hyderabad.

Also we can see the audience is really into the music and becoming even more discerning and knowledgeable on the same by the day.”

All is not lost. “I would try and go to other cities to watch a DJ, who has been my inspiration or someone who doesn't tour India very often.

I wouldn't want to miss a chance of being a part of the concert but I'd like if other genres also get recognised in the city. I think it would be super cool to watch top DJs and top Rock bands sharing the same stage.

It'd be interesting to attend a concert with different music genres being performed,” says Sandeep Kogilwaimath a DJ in the city.

“Hyderabad is taking its claim as a major destination for Electronic Dance Music. We’ve seen in recent gigs, Hyderabadis turned up in big volumes.

But why there haven’t been many international Rock, Metal or Jazz musical concerts in Hyderabad is still a big mystery. Apart from this, Hyderabad’s infrastructure is no less than any other cities, yet there have been only few takers” says Satish Kumar, a metalhead and a vocalist in the city shares the same ruse.

To this Sandeep responds, “Unlike a Mumbai, Delhi or Bengaluru, Hyderabad is still in the nascent stage when it comes to live music fests and performances.

However, Hyderabad has dynamic youth population rearing to go out and enjoy themselves, which makes it an important destination on our events calendar. The audiences are well informed and open to experimenting with different genres and styles of music.”
Karan says, “The dynamics are totally different for live bands, hence perhaps the delay in rock bands performing live in Hyderabad. After a successful first year of sold out FLY (the multi-genre international music festival) with ED Sheeran, we plan to get FLY again in the month of March 2017, which will feature live artist arenas with renowned international talents and I can assure you that we have some interesting stuff lined up. The official announcement for FLY 2017 inclusive of artists, dates, cities and venues will be made in early 2017. We are committed to our fans in Hyderabad to bring down the biggest headliners and the best acts in the city. And so, we will surely try to get ‘FLY’ to the city.”
There is ‘Rock’ in the air, but has taken a temporary back seat. One does hope things will look up in 2017, and in addition to the all time favourite EDM, the city opens up to the wonderful world of music and a host of genres, thus enriching the musical scene.