Dance music rules festival scene in 2016

NEW DELHI, Dec 30:  The prominence of dance music has exponentially grown across the globe and in 2016 India became one of the markets that the genre tapped into with performances by some of the biggest DJs in various cities throughout the year.
The music festival scene in India was mostly ruled by dance music as some of the popular names in the industry headlined two of the biggest festivals in 2016 — Sunburn and Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC) India.
While Sunburn, the biggest music festival in Asia, is celebrating its 10th anniversary with its massive lineup for the 4-day event in Pune this weekend, EDC announced its debut edition here in November.
Its India debut brings the madness that ensues every year at the festival’s finale in Las Vegas.
A slew of world renowned DJs along with home-grown talent performed at the two-day event which delivered a first-of-its-kind experience to ravers with the spectacular stage productions, lasers and sound design.
Steve Aoki, Yellow Claw, Afrojack and Alesso, Nucleya, Ferry Corsten and Markus Schulz were some of the headliners who performed across three stages designed for fans with different taste in genres.
Pasquale Rotella, Founder and CEO of Insomniac Events, who had earlier hinted about expanding the festival’s base and bringing it to Asian countries had said then, “Ever since I was a kid, I’ve been fascinated by the country’s colourful and exotic culture. I know it’s a place where the magic of EDC can come alive in a truly unique way.”
Besides EDC, there were other festivals that made first-ever trip to India. Sensation debuted in March in Hyderabad, while Mad Decent Block Party, curated by American DJ Diplo’s label — ‘Mad Decent’, toured Bengaluru and Mumbai in February.
Even the DJs have become aware that Indian subcontinent comprises of their most loyal fans who have helped in the collective growth of the genre by thronging city concerts and annual festivals in large numbers despite the hefty price of tickets.
Last year’s world number one DJs Dimitri Vegas and Like Mike believe EDM is on the rise in India. They performed in Mumbai and Hyderabad in October for ‘Sunburn Arena’ and are set to return for the finale in Pune tomorrrow.
“Dance music scene in India is crazy now. We started performing at smaller clubs and now its like a 10,000 people event,” the Belgian DJs told PTI during their tour.
“It is amazing to see the Indian dance culture in such a big light. I think as far India is concerned dance music will keep growing. It is great to see this evolution and be a part of it,” they said.
Dutch electro house DJ, Hardwell, too had a similar story experience as he first toured Delhi and Bengaluru for his individual concerts in October and then again performed in December.
Dutch trance legend Ferry Corsten, who headlined the circuit grounds stage at EDC, also noted India’s growing global representation in electronic music.
“Every time I check out the demo section of my record label, there’s always tracks and samples from producers in India, who are really good at it. I think this genre will grow in India as there are some really talented artistes here,” he said.
2016 was also the year of Nucleya, who was on a Bass riot with the release of his second studio album “Raja Baja”. The Ahmedabad-based Udyan Sagar gained popularity worldwide with his unique street-style Indian music coupled with heavy bass.
For the release, Nucleya went on an extensive “Bass Yatra” performing more than once in some cities and adopting a new technique of releasing an album, releasing one track every week instead of giving out the full length LP.
Nucleya is now aiming to fire the bass again at a much bigger level as performs at EDC Mexico in February 2017.
Even as the festivals offered a great deal of entertainment to the fans, some of them suffered a major setback due to restrictions put up by authorities.
VH1 Supersonic and Sunburn opted to shift their base from the beaches of Goa to Pune this year after their proposal on organising the festival on same dates as last year was not cleared by the Goa government.
The state government had asked them to shift the dates due to New Year rush which brings tourists to the beaches of Goa.
Sunburn kept the same date but shifted the venue to the hills of Kasnad in Pune. VH1 Supersonic shifted to Pune too but with different dates in February next year. (PTI)

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