MUMBAI: A music festival thrives off of large zesty crowds, which seemed to be missing from the Storm Festival’s new venue for the February 2014 edition. Scheduled to be the first multi-genre camp out festival of the year, it also happened to follow a December-full of festivals, which possibly drained people of time, energy and funds. Where affordability was the festival’s strong point, it also made way for heavy financial losses. Despite this, Storm Festival Director Lavin Uthapa’s passion and optimism leads way to the next edition, which he plans for the end of this year. Uthapa gives Radioandmusic.com a look through a festival director’s eyes and talks challenges, wins, Shankar Mahadevan, marketing strategies and the next edition.

From a festival director’s point of view, how did it go?

In totality it went off well, except that there were not as many people as we had expected. We are happy we created something and executed it well in terms of production, in terms of whatever our endeavours were. Our basic rules of no plastics on the storm grounds, no drugs etc, were enforced. You lose some you win some. I am happy with the way it went and it is going to get bigger and bigger, maybe not in size but in terms of collaborations, music and elements we want to use in the production and décor aspects.

How many attendees did you have this edition?

The figures we got from the ticket sales show about 4,800. This year we had about 40 acres, so people were scattered all over. We could not figure out the number of people at the console, stages, in the food area and camp area. In terms of what we had expected, this was a little less, but then, I am happy that the people who came had a good time and went back.

Were you able to make any profits besides covering costs?

Starting 2011, the reason why we did Storm festival was not to make money at all, and I still maintain that. If it does make money, it is very nice; like an intersperse of passion and money. It is more passion and dedication driven. When you start off, there are a lot of problems that you have to go through and there will be a time when we will breakeven. To be very honest, we have lost a lot of money but that is okay. The passion never dies.

Did having Shankar Mahadevan on board help the festival in any way?

Of course it did, in terms of the collaborations we had access to various artistes across the genres of music for the festival. He is a friend and a music lover and has always appreciated these kinds of music festivals. Having him as the brand ambassador for the next edition also, we are surely going to get more collaborations and artistes performing.

What kind of traction did you have on the web?

We had a lot of people talking about it during the festival and even after. People gave us feedback as to how things could improve. Some people appreciated whatever little we did for them at the festival. We did have a lot of traction but I guess it was not enough. We had poster campaigns across India, 3 gigs called ‘Chasing Storm’ across India, newspaper ads in national publications, specific targeted marketing in Bangalore and the IT areas, radio ads and MTV, which promoted us on television. And other activations with brands like Pepsico.

Maybe, for the next edition we will try and do it better. I might bring the Newspapers and hoarding down a bit and take digital higher. The reach right now, as I see, is that people are more accessible to their phones and internet and they are more tech savvy.

How was the new venue perceived by the attendees?

Some people like the ‘let’s go out of town and just chill for three days and come back to work’ concept. We brought the Storm festival from Coorg to Bangalore thinking that it will be more accessible to the people. But somewhere I guess people still felt that it is better to go out of town than just be around the city and go back home. The new venue is great and I like it, so did a lot of people. But then the idea of going away from the city and their homes for 2-3 days and having no network on their phones seems more appealing. And that is the reason we will be taking the festival back home to Coorg.

How were the artistes chosen for this edition?

We have had a mix of local artistes from all states of the country and international artistes also. We had Raghu Dixit and Swarathma from Karnataka, Tetseo Sisters form Nagaland, Papon from Assam, Susheela Raman and someone like Kutle Khan from Rajasthan and someone like Anthony Dassan from Tamil Nadu. The idea behind the line-up is to filter the 2000-3000 odd names and bring it down to 50-60 artistes. Being in Bangalore, we though there are a whole lot of people from across the world here, it being the IT hub. We thought of having one artiste from every state, which, of course, is very difficult. But we try, so that the music is appreciated and loved by each one of them.

Any idea when the next edition will be?

We are planning on having one more at the end of 2014, which might be in Coorg. The passion has still not died and it will not. For the next edition, the effort is going to be the same and we are trying to get more aristes, but we may not repeat most of those we had in the last three editions. We will have more never seen before collaborations. We will take it back home to Coorg and maybe other places too. But it will not be like having 2-3 editions in a year. We will have one more this year, and then we will take it to other places.

For your next edition are you going to be planning on a December festival?

We have to take a lot of factors into consideration; the weather and the availability of artistes during that time. So yes, maybe sometime during November-December. We will be looking at taking it to different destinations maybe once or twice a year. I think one reason why we did not have too many people at the festival was maybe because, prior, to the festival, there was some big artiste coming to perform in and around Bangalore. Parents, especially middle class people, cannot afford to send their children for so many gigs. It is not fair for regular working class people that they should keep aside 10,000-15,000 rupees for their child to be able to attend such a concert. Still, we did everything we could. But I am sure things will change soon and people will be open to more and more music festivals.

Were there any challenges you faced during the festival?

We had a lot of challenges, from permission to convincing people in the local community there. But ultimately, we gained their confidence and they understood the concept. It takes some time for any festival to take off. There are several festivals that have taken off after seven years. And I am glad that in the third edition we have reached out to so many people across the world. There were challenges in operations, production, and few things which we need to improve. We have review meetings to ensure that the loose ends from the previous editions are tied in the next edition.