Love singing with your favourite stars live with the extravaganza of music, dance and all kinds of performances that gets you high? Well, you can thank Karan Singh for bringing Sunburn into our lives. The CEO of Asia’s largest music festival brand has revolutionised the concept of live music festivals making India proud, happy and high with their ever-increasing fan base and lineup of ravishing talents both Indian and international. Gearing up for its 16th edition of Sunburn Goa 2022 to be held from 28 – 30 December 2022 at Vagator, We got the caption of the ship to spill the beans on what goes behind the scenes to the future plans with the brand.
1. From being an MBA graduate to now being the CEO of Asia’s largest music festival brand, tell us about your journey and how you started out.
Yes, this is not a very normal or usual job for an MBA graduate from an Ivy League university. And I did do investment banking before that for three years with Ambit. But I initially got involved with this because Sunburn is a part of my family business, Percept, which was started by my dad several years ago. So that’s how the involvement began and then obviously since then have been very deeply entrenched in the industry and the business and taking it forward over the last ten years or so. That’s pretty much how it’s going.
2. How do you work towards making Sunburn relevant given there is a multitude of festivals and Sunburn has been a mainstay in the festival arena?
I think sunburn was a first mover in the industry. We pretty much started the music festival culture in India back in 2007. And from day one, we focused on delivering world-class festival experiences for our customers, bringing down the world’s best artists and top-of-the-line production experience. So I think that is what has helped differentiate our brand from others in the space.
3. What would you say is the most challenging part of your job? How have you overcome the struggles?
Well, doing live events and festivals in this country is always a huge challenge because there are so many balls in the air, be it licences, permissions, venue issues, production issues, forex rates, sponsors, ticket sales, or competition. It’s pretty much an endless list. I think that the industry still has to evolve a lot to kind of make things operationally smoother for players like us. But we are in it for the long haul, so we will be patient till we get there.
4. Having done events nationally and internationally, how does your team curate the theme, ambience, design, and so on? Tell us about the whole process that goes behind making a festival successful.
Well, we always have a particular theme for the Sunburn Festival each year. Like this year, the theme is The Future is Now. And you will see that reflected in the main stage in the experiences around the festival. We do a lot of research, and we also look at other festivals globally, what they’re doing, how technology is evolving, what the latest trends are with our audience, the gen Z. And that’s how we kind of make up our minds about what kind of experiences and creatives we want to bring to life at the festival each year.
5. What do you think is the future of the live event industry in India and how has it grown over the years?
The future of the live events industry in India is definitely very positive and optimistic. Post the pandemic, we are seeing strong demand in the industry. There are a lot of big tours happening, be it with international artists or also with Indian domestic artists, which is very encouraging to see. At the same time, as I said, it’s an evolving industry. There are a lot of challenges and a lot of changes that have to be made over time. But the encouraging thing is that the industry is growing, demand is strong and attending live events is becoming more of a habit for young people.
6. How have you built the Sunburn brand over the years and how are you planning to take forward the legacy in the coming years?
We focused on delivering world-class experiences to our customers at every single event. Also, we’ve made it a point to take the Sunburn experience far and wide to many different markets in India with tier-one, tier-two, colleges, etc. Because India is a very big country, everybody cannot travel down to Goa just for the main festival. So we’ve been kind of taking the Sunburn experience through many different formats and I think that’s how we have managed to grow the brand, to spread it to different corners of the country and in fact outside of the country as well. And we’ll definitely continue to keep doing it.
7. Which has been your most memorable edition of Sunburn and why?
Look, it’s going to be this year. I think we’re all super excited that it’s finally happening again at the full scale. Post the pandemic, we have a great lineup and a lot of excitement and buzz around the festival. So, although it’s not happening yet, we’re just a week away, and excitement levels are super high. We’re really looking forward to it.
8. What are some of the unique features that only Sunburn incorporates which make you a brand leader in the Asian market?
We do really creative production and stage designs. Obviously, happening in Goa, Vagator at the end of the year itself means that the entire location and the vibe of the place are also very, very special. And I think that because it’s a destination event. Just the fact that we have people travelling in from all over India and a lot of different countries, we’ve been represented by fans from over 52 countries. It’s like a melting pot of different cultures and people from all around the world. I think that itself adds a lot to the experience.
9. Who are your personal favourite artists and what kind of music do you love?
I think I listened to quite a few different genres. Obviously, EDM is definitely one of them. And also pop, rap, hip hop, and RnB. One of my personal favourites has always been Avicii. Love his music and also the fact that my first ever Sunburn concert was with him back in December 2011. So incredibly sad what happened to him, but his music and his legacy live on.
10. What do you think is the best and worst thing about your profession?
The best thing about my profession is definitely the adrenaline and the high and just the pure unbridled joy that you feel when you pull off one of these massive, large-scale events and you see thousands and thousands of happy faces, smiling faces, people having the time of their lives at the festival or at one of the events. And the worst thing, definitely, as I said, is the stress because doing these events in India does take a lot out of you.
