Sunburn Festival is a commercial electronic dance music festival held in India. It was started by entrepreneur Shailendra Singh of Percept Ltd. The festival grew to become the 3rd largest dance festival in the world.
Spanning over three to five days, the festival has multiple stages with artists playing simultaneously. It was held annually in Vagator, Goa from 2007 to 2015, and shifted to Pune, Maharashtra in 2016. In 2019, the festival returned to Vagator, Goa.
According to a 2014 International Music Summit report, Sunburn was "as big as Tomorrowland and Ultra". It was ranked by CNN in 2009 as one of the Top 10 Festivals in the world.
In 2011, Percept Ltd launched the Sunburn Arena, featuring Avicii, at the Turf Club in Mumbai. In 2012, Percept launched Sunburn City Festival, Sunburn Campus and Sunburn Reload, as well as their first international festival, Sunburn Colombo. Over the years Sunburn has expanded internationally and has included many acclaimed DJs, including Swedish House Mafia, Hardwell, David Guetta, Axwell, Dimitri Vegas and Like Mike, Paul Van Dyk, Marshmello, Chainsmokers, Afrojack, Pete Tong, Tiesto, Armin van Buren, DeadMau5, Carl Cox, DJ Snake, Skazi.
History
Electronic music parties and similar festivals have been held in Goa, with the late 1980s seeing the start of free parties, events that included DJs, art, crafts and food stalls. This continued through 1990s to early 2000s at beaches such as Vagator Beach, Anjuna beach and Arambol beach. As mainstream electronic dance music gained more widespread popularity within India, commercialized events such as Sunburn were started.
Sunburn Goa 2007
In 2007, Shailendra Singh organized the first Sunburn as an international dance music festival. It took place on 28 & 29 December at Candolim Beach, Goa. First year performers included Carl Cox, Above & Beyond and Axwell as headline acts. Held on two stages, with DJs playing simultaneously, other acts included John 00 Fleming, Pete Gooding, DJ Pearl, Jalebee Cartel, Super 8 & Tab. The festival was hosted by Nikhil Chinapa and Rohit Barker.
Sunburn Goa 2008
Sunburn Goa 2008 was themed Electric Circus and was held on two main stages: "Banyan Tree" for Trance acts and "Circus Stage" for House music. Having tied up with Defected Records in 2008, the label brought house DJs Simon Dunmore, Shapeshifters, Copyright and percussionist Shovel playing. Headlining the festival were GMS, Gareth Emery and John 00 Fleming. The acts were Digital Blonde, Roger Shah, DJ Pearl, Brute Force, Nawed Khan, Vachan Chinnappa, Jalebee Cartel, Sanjay Dutta, and Ma Faiza. The visuals were produced by Dan booth, Martin Robins, Vj Kaycee & Inferno. Sunburn Goa 2008 took place on 27–29 December at Candolim Beach Goa.
Sunburn Goa 2009
Sunburn brought DJ Armin Van Buuren, who headlined the festival along with Latin House DJs Roger Sanchez and John 00 Fleming. Sunburn's line-up also included tech house DJ Sultan and Trance DJ Sander Van Doorn. Previously in 2008, Sunburn had tied up with Defected Records, but in 2009 Sunburn tied up with UK clubbing company Gatecrashers. Acts included Jalebee Cartel, DJ Pearl, Ma Faiza, Nawed Khan and Designer Hippies. The festival was hosted by Nikhil Chinapa and Rohit Barker.
Sunburn Goa 2010
Sunburn Goa 2010 took place on 27–29 December at Candolim Beach. The headliners of the 2010 festival were Paul Van Dyk, Ferry Corsten and Axwell along with Sultan & Ned Shepard with Nadia Ali (Live), Richard Durand, GMS, Pete Gooding, Aly & Fila and DJs DJ Pearl, Ma Faiza, Anish Sood and Sanjay Dutta.
For the 2010 festival, Percept ran a "Sunburn Anthem Contest" for potential audio and visual producers, with participants in the visual category allowed to make a visual for a B.R.E.E.D track which is then submitted to a panel of judges. Participants in the audio category were asked to make a remix of Nadia Ali's ‘Love Story’ which is the Anthem of the festival.
Sunburn passes went live on 5 November 2010 with the early bird passes and pre-booking sale passes being sold out in 22 minutes.
Sunburn Goa 2011
Sunburn Goa 2011 was held on 27–29 December at Candolim Beach. The main attraction was Above & Beyond, Axwell, Infected Mushroom, Spartaque.
Sunburn Goa 2012
Sunburn Festival 2012 was held in Candolim, Goa, India during 27, 28 Dec & 29. Headlining acts in 2012 were by Sander Van Doorn, BT, Fedde Le Grand, W & W, Paul van Dyk, Roger Sanchez. After-parties for Sunburn 2012 were held at LPK (Love Passion Karma) and Sinq.