Last December when Sunburn Reload debuted Nucleya and Teri Miko, we figured it would at least be a while before the festival could top the feat. But, festival curators have already outdone themselves by bringing together headlining acts like Johannesburg-born Candice Redding and the DJ who had Hardwell tripping on his tracks—Sartek, for the latest edition of Sunburn Reload Coimbatore. On the line up of artistes making their city debut, DJ Mohit Bhatia who will be opening for the headlining acts says, “Coimbatore has a lot of potential for electronic music. People here love to party and are open to exploring new sounds. EDM is reaching a saturation in cities like Pune, Bengaluru and Mumbai. It is a great time to explore other potential markets.”
Of the two headlining acts Candice Redding is a prominent name at major music festivals like Sunburn and VH1 Supersonic and will be making her city debut with the festival. Having opened for Candice for at least five of her shows, Mohit attributes a lot of his learning to the South African DJ who has been dominating the electro house, progressive and deep techno house scene in the country. “The energy that she brings to her concerts is palpable. Your biggest learning from Candice would be that the energy you
bring to the stage is everything.” Mohit shares. On the road extensively over the last year, we learn that Candice who is part of Amazon’s The Remix is spending more time in the studio with tracks up for release over the course of the year.
Talking about the first Indian DJ who released music on Hardwell’s record label in 2016, and then later in 2017 opened for Justin Beiber’s India Concert, Mohit believes that dance music behemoths like Sartek are revolutionising the Indian party circuit. “When on tour with Sartek you realise how important the art of engineering your track yourself is,” says Mohit. A proponent of two sounds — electro/big room and future house, Sartek has also opened for EDM bigwigs like David Guetta, Fedde Le Grande, Martin Garrix, Steve Aoki and Paul Van Dyke.
The festival also promises power-packed opening performances with some desi-inspired beats from DJ 303K; commercial, retro, rock and trance music from the city’s own DJ duo Vanessa Wilson and Brett and will also debut Nagpur-based host MC Noizee.
Rs 1,500 onwards. On March 10 at The Bungalow Club Resort. From 5 pm.