Festival Report: Amidst Delays, Admin and Tech Issues, The Returning Vh1 Supersonic Pulled Through to Finish Strong

After three years away due to the pandemic, multi-genre music festival Vh1 Supersonic returned this past weekend (February 24th to 26th, 2023) to its home at Mahalakshmi Lawns in Pune. The venue was filled with artsy installations, brand activations, a flea market, a sprawling food court and bars at various spots on ground. With five stages on show — the Main Stage, NEXA Live Stage, BUDX Spectrum, Cirque Du Social (an intimate tent for DJ sets) and 10000 Lions Soundsystem (set up for reggae music) — there was plenty to get through at the event.  

Day 1: Rough Start, Confused Audience, Decent Lineup 

When we arrived on day one of the festival at about 5.30 pm, it was surprisingly silent. Pune soul/easy-listening group Easy Wanderlings were meant to have been performing on the Main Stage at this point, but they were nowhere in sight. Soon after, festival director Nikhil Chinapa was heard over the PA system saying that the organizers were attending to “administrative issues” and that the music would resume soon. It is unclear as to what problems they were dealing with, but after almost an hour’s wait, the Wanderlings made their way to the stage. Shortly after beginning their set, they were asked to stop since whatever the problem at hand was hadn’t been sorted fully, yet. After a short wait the band finally managed to play out their set – albeit with the PA system set at a lower volume – with tracks such as “Enjoy It While It Lasts” from their 2017 debut album As Written in the Stars as well as “Enemy” and “Center of the Universe” off their recent release, 2022’s Caught in a Parade EP.   

With the organizers now having to manage set times as the day’s schedule had been messed up, we made our way over to the BUDX Spectrum stage to catch Goa-based electronic producer Anish Sood aka Anyasa perform his style of dancefloor underground/techno music. We also caught a glimpse of Mumbai-based drum-and-bass artist Aditya Ashok aka OX7GEN at the air-conditioned Cirque Du Social tent. At the NEXA Live Stage, New Delhi artist Kavya Trehan aka KAVYA put on an energetic performance with her Glitch Mob collab “Bleedin’ Out” and “Inception.”  

As soon as KAVYA wrapped up, composers-producers OAFF (Kabeer Kathpalia) and Savera (Mehta) got onto the Main Stage to mark their first-ever festival appearance together. Backed by a band and singers, the pair played songs from the 2022 film Gehraiyaan – for which they worked on the soundtrack – such as the title track and “Beqaaboo,” and were joined by Bollywood actor Siddhant Chaturvedi on “Doobey.” The duo also invited to the stage Mumbai-based artists KAYAN to perform “So Good” and Kamakshi Khanna to sing “Duur,” both of whom had worked with OAFF on the two songs.  

Canadian electronic duo Bob Moses consisting of artists Tom Howie and Jimmy Vallance had people grooving to their alternative dance and deep-house tracks over at the BUDX Spectrum stage, while reggae lovers vibed to the positive energy that was being served up at the 10000 Lions Soundsystem setup. We were just in time to see a bit of New Delhi waltz/gypsy and jazz-rock band Peter Cat Recording Co. before their set finished at the NEXA Live Stage and while they were performing their song “Memory Box” off their 2019 album Bismillah.  

Next up at the Main Stage was day-one headliner, New Delhi singer-songwriter Prateek Kuhad. Although Kuhad faced a few tech issues at the start of his set, those were quickly eradicated. Kuhad’s setlist included “for your time,” the singalong “Tune Kaha,” “The Last Time,” “100 Words,” “All I Need,” “Bloom,” “Co2” and he closed with the Barack Obama favorite “cold/mess.” Kuhad was also allowed to go on for 30 minutes longer than the 10 pm curfew due to the delays Vh1 Supersonic faced earlier in the day.   

Day 2: DIVINE Sets the Bar High  

On day two of the festival, things were a bit smoother. Bengaluru’s hip-hop/pop duo RANJ x Clifr took to the NEXA Live Stage at 4 pm and treated attendees to their vibrant sounds, proficient musicianship and vocals. The pair – who were also joined by drummer Jason Sharat – performed tracks such as “UNO,” “Conversation,” “WORK” and the unreleased “Fruit.” The artists were faced with a tech glitch when the PA went off midway through their set, but it didn’t deter them as the sound was restored quickly.  

Over at the BUDX Spectrum stage, Chinapa — who’s also a DJ apart from being the festival’s organizer — and Browncoat provided the audience with electro-dance tunes and were followed by New Delhi-based producer Gaurav Malaker aka BLOT! who kept the party going with his crisp sounds on the same stage. Back at the Main Stage, Bengaluru act T.ill APES brought their unique sound to the festival, which included hip-hop, neo-soul, jazz, rock and more. After performing on day one of the festival with his band Peter Cat Recording Co., vocalist-producer Suryakant Sawhney now took to the NEXA Live Stage for a sundowner set as his solo avatar, Lifafa. Sawhney performed favorites such as “Nikamma” and “Wahin Ka Wahin.” 

Probably one of the standout acts at the festival across the three days in terms of performance, showmanship and putting on a great set was Mumbai hip-hop artist DIVINE. The rapper jumped on the Main Stage at 7 pm to a packed audience and showcased his onstage braggadocio with hard-hitting rhymes on tracks such as “Kohinoor,” “Chal Bombay,” “Mirchi” for which he was joined by fellow rapper MC Altaf, and the Karan Kanchan-produced “Sitara” for which DIVINE invited his collaborator Indo-Canadian singer Jonita Gandhi to join him onstage. DIVINE then raced through more songs which included “Vibe Hai,” “Apna Time Aayega,” “Punya Paap,” his Naezy collab “Mere Gully Mein,” “Baazigar,” “Farak” and his Nucleya collab “Scene Kya Hai.”  

After quickly catching a glimpse of Mumbai-based producer Sanaya Ardeshir aka Sandunes throw up her selections of some pulsating dance numbers at the Cirque Du Social tent, we headed back to the Main Stage to see American rapper Tyga mark his return to India after four years (he last performed in Mumbai in 2019). In all honesty, Tyga’s headlining slot was underwhelming and after DIVINE’s thumping performance an hour earlier, the Mumbai rapper was definitely a tough act to follow. Tyga’s cover-heavy set with remix versions of songs like Daddy Yankee’s “Gasolina” and the sampled “Ayy Macarena” was coupled with “Azz Up Face Down” and his Young Money contribution on “BedRock” which didn’t make for a resounding performance. Simultaneously, English DJ duo CamelPhat comprising Dave Whelan and Mike Di Scala were closing the BUDX Spectrum stage with their tech-house and prog-house music, which was where we ended day two of Vh1 Supersonic.  

Day 3: Anne-Marie’s Stellar Headlining Set  

Day three of Vh1 Supersonic was also plagued with delays from the onset as New Delhi/Goa indie-rock band Begum took to the stage at 5 pm, an hour after they were originally scheduled to go on at the NEXA Live Stage. With this, the organizers had to juggle with cutting down on set times once again. The unaffected BUDX Spectrum stage continued to party on with early sets from Indian electronic artists Kohra X Zokhuma.  

U.K.-based British Bengali artist Tara Lily was back in India after performing at the Echoes of Earth Festival at the end of 2022 and went up on the Main Stage. Backed by her tight band, the musician performed tracks such as “The Ones I Lost” (from her 2021 EP Lost In London), “Hotel Amour” and “Don’t Explain” (both off 2022’s EP Last Flight Out).   

Seasoned electronic artist Arjun Vagale turned up with a blistering set at the BUDX Spectrum stage with his brand of techno tunes that had everyone in attendance dancing to the music without a care in the world. At the Main Stage, breakout Ludhiana singer-songwriter Anuv Jain went on solo. We heard him perform his songs “Gul” and “Mishri” while he spoke in between tracks, most of which were sob stories and quite a drag to listen to. No doubt Jain has a good batch of songs, however, hearing them on a large festival stage isn’t the best environment as it does get a bit dreary.  

Nigerian singer-songwriter CKay marked his India debut at Vh1 Supersonic as he went out on the NEXA Live Stage. The artist informed the audience how Bollywood films are much appreciated in his country as he performed tracks such as “mmadu,” “emiliana” and his smash-hit “love nwantiti (ah ah ah).” There wasn’t much to sing home about regarding CKay’s performance – apart from his sax player who was quite exceptional – although attendees seemed to enjoy themselves.  

Vh1 Supersonic did do good with their day-three headliner by programming English singer Anne-Marie, who made her India debut at the Vh1 Supersonic Main Stage in Bengaluru earlier in the week. The singer’s pop sound accompanied by her silky vocals were a perfect concoction to finish the three-day event. Anne-Marie’s 17-song setlist featured tracks such as “x2,” her contribution on the Clean Bandit and Sean Paul collab “Rockabye” and her David Guetta collab “Don’t Leave Me Alone.” The singer also performed “SAD B!TCH,” “Psycho,” “Birthday” and closed with her magnum opus and Marshmello collab “FRIENDS.” 

We thought that was the end of this edition of Vh1 Supersonic, but Chinapa came out to announce that hip-hop artist Paradox would come out to perform a surprise set on the Main Stage. At this point, folks were tuckered out and some stayed on to watch Paradox while others headed towards the food court to grab a bite and beverage and some others headed for the exit to beat the traffic.  

While there were moments where Supersonic was strong, there were also glaring errors that shouldn’t be happening at a festival of this scale. There’s no doubt that the organizers worked hard in putting it together, but we hope that for future editions they tie up their loose ends and sail through the event smoothly. It was nice to see that the festival ended on a high note, and it will be interesting to keep an eye out for 2024 and find out if lessons were learned by the organizers from this year. 

All photos are courtesy of Vh1 Supersonic.