Vh1 Supersonic Kicks Off Pre-Festival Club, Arena Shows

Swedish producer Albin Myers at Supersonic 2013 in Goa. Photo: Courtesy of Supersonic

After a tough festival season last year to host the first edition of EDM festival Vh1 Supersonic in Goa last year, organizers Live Viacom 18 are now launching a six-month pre-festival lineup of shows to promote Supersonic. The festival kicks off club nights, college festival shows and open-air gigs starting this week featuring international and Indian electronica artists.

Ahead of the final five-day electronic music festival held in Goa in December, Supersonic will host three different event types ”“ Vh1 Supersonic Club Nights, Supersonic 101 and Supersonic Mini Arcade. While there will be around 50 Club Night gigs and 50 shows as part of Supersonic 101 held in campuses across India starting this month, the Mini Arcade, which are open-air concert series featuring Indian and international artists, will kick off in September. Says Jaideep Singh, senior vice president and business head at Integrated Network Solutions, Viacom 18, “We want to get rolling from June or July until March or April next year. The amount of events also helps us to give budding Indian talent a chance.” Artists performing at all three events will be announced later this month. Singh adds that following Vh1 Supersonic, they will host the second edition of extreme sports and music festival, MTV Xtreme, which was headlined by American thrash metal band Megadeth in February this year.

Singh also confirms Supersonic will be curated by Nikhil Chinapa, from event firm Submerge, this year as well. Last year, Chinapa broke away from EDM festival Sunburn’s organizers Percept as festival director to be a part of Supersonic. Although Supersonic and Sunburn organizers were involved in a legal battle to host both their festivals in north Goa’s Candolim area [which Supersonic won] and even fought over stolen festival ideas, Singh says he’s happy that both events were successful. Adds Singh, “If there are more offerings, we will grow and the industry will become more organized. For any business to grow, we need a lot of competition. If there weren’t any other competitors, it [live music events] would be an otherwise very disorganized market. The market has certainly grown, though and we hope it gets bigger.” While Supersonic had a late start last year, starting lineup announcements only in November, a month after Sunburn had announced EDM artist Axwell to headline its seventh edition, Singh says preparations are on further in advance for this year’s Supersonic Festival, including the permission process. Says Singh, “With everything we’re doing with Supersonic this year, we’re looking at delivering a better experience of consuming the festival, and, of course, showcasing the best music.”

To get an early start, Vh1 Supersonic also launched sale of 1,500 Super-Sling tickets for the final five-day festival in December. Super-Sling tickets give buyers an all-round exclusive package, including after-parties, VIP access and lineup updates from the festival beforehand. Although all 1,500 tickets are sold out, we’re giving away two Super-Sling tickets. Answer our contest below.

Watch Nikhil Chinapa talk about Vh1 Supersonic’s Super-Sling experience here

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