When music festivals clash...

When you have only 365 days in a year and probably three times the number of films on offer, you’re bound to clash with another film sooner rather than later. That’s why you see the news declaring Bollywood clashes as an annual event. Festivals are considered the domains of superstars — Shah Rukh Khan at Diwali, Salman Khan at Eid and Aamir Khan at Christmas. It would be foolhardy to go up against the biggest names in the business. This year, however, there have been smaller clashes.

But this story isn’t about Bollywood. It’s about an industry, that for some reason, has closely mirrored Bollywood this year. The live music scene —- more specifically the music festival scene — is seeing more clashes than ever. The one clash was usually the year-ender: Sunburn vs Vh1 Supersonic.

However, this year, the big names go up against relative minnows. These minnows, however, are backed by big names and hence, no one is prevailed upon to shift dates. Of course, it isn’t just that. The audience each festival targets — for better or worse — is starkly different.

Take this weekend, for example. Absolut Enchanted Valley Carnival, which usually comes mid-December in Aamby Valley City, on the outskirts of Mumbai had the Lodha Group’s Palava Tarang festival and the debutant Eat Play Love for company.

Sheer curiosity

The debutant and its organisers  have no fear of being swallowed by the ‘competition’. Says Chandni Dhall, Partner, Eat Play Love, “Since this is the debut edition of the festival, I am of the opinion that it will attract a steady footfall out of sheer curiosity. Mumbaikars are always looking for a variety element and the festival itself is high on the entertainment quotient. Festivals like these which integrate culture at different levels are not restricted to just the youth but are very popular amongst the 20 -50 age group. Moreover, our festival is meant for the entire family and is not just limited to the best in food or music, we have elements of art and activities all under one roof. Technically, it’s not limited to any specific genre or target audience.”

It’s unfair

Devraj Sanyal, Managing Director and  CEO, Universal Music Group, South Asia of Enchanted Valley Carnival feels there is no comparison at all. He feels, “It’s unfair to compare two brand new properties to one of the top festivals of the country that has spent years building the size, scale and  scope that EVC has. It takes years before a festival gets to a size to be reckoned with. So there is no comparison at all. I wish everyone the very best as only when everyone does well, does a real festival market get built.”

And while that’s a sentiment worth seconding,  you know the coming week has a three-way tie. Sunburn (this year in Pune) goes head-to-head with the Nikhil Chinappa-backed boutique beach festival, Wonderwall and DJ/producer Ankit Kochar aka Ankytrixx’s CTRL ALT Dance. But this one is not a clash at all. Both Ankit and Nikhil are minutes away from each other, venue-wise and have nothing but good things to say about each other’s limited-audience festivals.

Serious takers

Karan Singh, CEO, Sunburn states that Sunburn has never really faced any competition. In industry parlance, Sunburn is mainstream. “We have serious takers for the genre of music we promote. This year with the festival moving to Pune we definitely anticipate a higher attendance from people in Maharashtra, a strong youth and expat community representation. We have added a few more genres this year (like hard style) to ensure we reach to an untapped market. We will have the largest camping site set which will see many takers — so people who want to do shorter trips in and around the city but yet feel like they are vacationing in a hill station with a great musical vibe,” he shares.

A new model

Nikhil for his part is unflappable. He says, “I think people are being smart. The future really is the boutique event, which is more manageable and for a discerning audience. I did several interviews during Supersonic last year, where I said that there were now three festivals in Goa — Sunburn, Supersonic and the after-parties. The after-parties last year emerged, very credibly, as the third festival for there were people who didn’t go to either festival but went to the after parties every single night. There were after-parties for bass music, mainstream music and for techno. And all of them did well. What we’re seeing in Goa this year is the emergence of festivals that are in the alternative space and that community is very tightly knit. That’s the great thing, we are all a tightly-knit community and none of us are trying to outdo the other, put down the other. We are all doing our own thing and because there are so many people in Goa in December anyway, all the events are going to do well. And that’s going to be great to see. Not only from a point of view of money, effort and time that has been put in curating these events, but it’s going to give them hope for the future. For a very long time we have seen stagnant growth in the number of tickets we sell for mainstream events and seeing the emergence of alternative and underground scene is going to be a beacon for other cities to follow in 2017. This model is going to be a beacon for other cities to follow in 2017.”

Not just music

Well, here’s the thing about boutique festivals. They’re everywhere already. SulaFest, several editions in, sees Vh1 Supersonic come closer to home (Sula is in Nashik while the latter is in Pune) just a few days apart in February 2017. And so, Cecilia Oldne, Global Brand Ambassador and Vice President, Marketing, Sula Vineyards, believes that with the festival happening a weekend apart in different city, it’s a good thing that the music scene in Maharashtra is growing. She says, “SulaFest caters to more than just music lovers. Apart from offering 20+ different music genres — world fusion, techno, world hang, percussion, electro-swing, house, garage, afro and reggae to mention a few — we also offer so much more at the vineyards. We have something for everyone — one can do grape stomping amidst the vineyards during peak harvest time, learn more about wines on a guided winery tour and tasting, take a massage, be a part of a yoga class — even partake in a morning run.  We have decided to go all out with our 10th edition!”

Zero clash

Audience differentiation is a key factor to understanding clashes between music festivals and why there’s no heartburn here. Saugato Bhowmik, Head LIVE Viacom18 and Consumer Products shares, “SulaFest is a niche, boutique experience for a far more older audience, whereas Vh1 Supersonic targets a much younger audience base that like international experiential and love international commercial and non-commercial music across multiple genres like EDM, Hip- Hop, Trance, Live and mainstream commercial. So, the audience overlap between SulaFest and Vh1 Supersonic is almost negligible. There is no clash of audiences. There is no clash of dates. There is no clash of venue. There is, in fact, no clash at all. We were very careful in choosing our venue and dates. We realised that there was absolutely nothing in a similar audience space, anywhere before or after our festival, for at least a month or more. So we are absolutely in an uncontested space and there is absolutely zero clash.”