MUMBAI: For its second year running, Vh1 Supersonic has raised the bar with its flawless presentation. This year, Vh1 Supersonic boasts approximately 78 dance music acts from around the world, all featured on three stages. However, while the stages were each compelling in their own way, they were simply too close to one another, resulting in a dance music concoction. However, the clash of sounds did not seem to do any harm as EDM lovers grooving to the music during the first two days of the festival.
The main stage- the Iron Heart stage, appeared to have been inspired by TomorrowLand, MysteryLand or in this case, Wonderland especially because of the strong references from the classic Lewis Carrol tale. The two other stages- the Laboratoire stage and the Spectrum stage were placed on either side of the main stage. Although all three stages had artists performing by mid-afternoon, Laboratoire enjoyed a larger audience, simply because it offered more shade, while the Iron Heart and Spectrum did not.
Each stage also offered a unique sound, ensuring it catered to different dance music enthusiasts. Laboratoire artists like Skitz, Benny Page, DJ Die feat. Jenna G, Foreign Beggars, The Upbeats or Stanton Warriors had a funky sound with drum and bass, funkstep and reggaestep. Spectrum had artists like Arjun Vagale, Ash Roy, Coyu, Maya Jane Coles and Mark Knight playing tech house, tech trance and techstep. Iron Heart featured a more mainstream line-up with Grammy Award winner Paul van Dyke, Funkagenda, Gareth Emery, Hook N Sling playing house and Dillon Francis playing his signature moombahton.
Among the festival's stand out features is the setup. Main sponsors have ample area to set up an innovative booth near the stages. Mobile partner Gionee not only has set up a 360 degree setup with Gionee cameras all around, but also had mobile phones attached to drones that flew over the stages and recorded the event and had cell-phone lockers with charging points where festival goers could charge their phones for an hour. Online Partner Quikr has an enclosed area where festival goers could 'revive, refresh and rejuvenate' themselves with air conditioning and Wi-Fi facility. Similarly creative were the Absolut and Skybags booth, with Absolut constructing a 'lover's corner' and Skybags providing fans with massive bean bags to rest on.
On the whole, this year's Vh1 Supersonic will be an experience that you might regret to have missed.
On another note, the attention to detail on Nikhil Chinappa's part is worthy of notice. From security to sound, Chinappa seems to have been very attentive towards everything.