DGTL India’s Organizer and DJ-Producer Likwid Talks Sustainability and What’s In Store This Year

For its third outing coming up in November this year, music festival DGTL India returns to Bengaluru on November 17th and 18th at the Lalit Ashok and to Mumbai on November 18th and 19th at Nesco Center.

Often hailed for its inventive stage designs that go beyond the psychedelic, escapist dreamscapes offered by EDM mainstays like Sunburn and Vh1 Supersonic, the futuristic look of the globe-trotting DGTL festival is a reflection of its curatorial outlook as well. This year, the Bengaluru and Mumbai editions will host the likes of DJ-producers Richie Hawtin, Tinlicker, Anna, Kilimanjaro, Juliet Fox, Jensen Interceptor, Onyvaa, Innellea and several others in India.

Among the local acts on the lineup are Likwid aka Arnab Banerjee, who doubles up as founder at DGTL India’s organizers Yozora Entertainment. Also responsible for organizing Boiler Room shows in India at the moment, Banerjee certainly seems like he has his hands full, but it’s a welcome change from the uncertainties wrought on by the pandemic in early 2020, right after the inaugural edition of DGTL India took place in Bengaluru in January. Below, he speaks to Rolling Stone India about the journey of putting together the festival in different cities so far and what’s in store in 2023. Excerpts:

DGTL was one of the last few major festivals that happened in India before the pandemic. What was it like seeing that pause and that uncertainty for you, after hosting a fairly successful inaugural edition in Bangalore?

I had been working for years without a break or a pause leading up to DGTL. So the break actually did help, though at first I wasn’t quite sure of how to deal with all the uncertainties. However, as the lockdown continued I had made peace with the new reality and in fact used the time to work and realign my vision for what I really wanted to do with my life, once we did get back to work. 

And how did you manage to bounce back from it, find a way to make it all sustainable once again?

Quite honestly, we wanted to come back with a bang and we did so with a two-city edition last year. The turnout suddenly made those months of work seem worthwhile. Last year, we saw an attendance of 25,000+ music fans across two cities and three days, soaking in the music on offer in an immersive environment — it was hands down the biggest underground dance music show the country had seen at that point. People come to DGTL for its incredible performances, so we had to trust what we pulled off in the previous edition right from the collaborations, the people who guided its successful trajectory, our team and the feedback we saw online, and put together a festival that people wanted to see. 

Over the past and upcoming editions of DGTL in India, what has it been like putting it together to meet the global ethos but also make it locally a good draw?

For us at Yozora, it’s been about finding the right balance between DGTL’s global ethos and plugging that into the local electronic scene and being mindful of the evolving dancefloor trends across the country. Having founded Yozora in 2019, we have always tried to showcase the very best in dance music ranging from top-tier talent such as Solomun, Sven Vath, HVOB to also focusing on introducing exciting new talents such as Partiboi69 or Ki/Ki (2022) to the country. 

DGTL seems to balance a line between being niche within the dance music space but also serving a larger audience. How have you seen that change, if at all, over these editions?

When we kicked off in 2020, the audience we catered to was niche for sure. However, we always believed in the universal appeal of this music and its culture. The pandemic in fact aided the growth as a lot of the younger audience started consuming dance music via live streams and music streaming apps; combine this with a pent up demand for the young adults to go out and reclaim the lost time during the pandemic. It was a perfect setting for the music scene in India to finally transition into its current phase, where it’s no longer niche, neither is it mainstream but it has carved out its own space which continues to grow. 

What does it entail for a company like yours to run the show in two different cities almost simultaneously for DGTL?

We have a trusted core team split across both cities to run the shows independently. The one thing our team knows is how to run a large-scale concert or festival. We usually have very clearly demarcated roles and functions for everyone and we spend the full year planning. We do think it gets better every year, as all of us keep learning with every passing edition. 

What’s in store at DGTL this year in Mumbai and Bengaluru, in terms of just experiences and production? 

The DGTL stage designs are always a treat to watch as they aren’t like anything we usually see across the country. These are industrial sets with state-of-the-art technology and if you have seen our previous editions you would know what to expect. The audio-visual programming varies stage to stage each year. We are excited to see the reaction to some of the new designs we are working on for this year. The main objective with this year’s line-up is to have a balanced approach, where all the four stages have equally strong and exciting offerings. 

There will also be a heavy emphasis on sustainability including resource management, food and energy consumption and sanitation. DGTL is working on the objective of becoming fully sustainable and 100 percent circular. Our intent is to create world-class music experiences in India which are both, enjoyable and meaningful. 

Get tickets for DGTL India in Bengaluru and Mumbai here.