Building it,show by show

The Great Gig In The Sky combines a nature trail with live music by a local artiste and allows 30 people to take part in the weekend getaway usually held in the outskirts of Mumbai. Sunburn in Goa is expecting to cater to 75,000 music fans in its fifth year,many from Mumbai. Within city limits,Live From The Console,a Fountainhead Promotions and Events property at Mehboob Studio,was created to promote the local music scene. And it isn’t just music events that get takers. Over 2,000 food and wine lovers found their calling at the Bandra Beer Fest and the Bandra Wine Tasting Festival organised by the Pune Gourmet Club.

“An event property stems from a single,generic idea and then builds up from there,” says Vijay Nair,CEO of Only Much Louder. “The word-of-mouth reputation encouraged us to make it a regular feature.” Akul Tripathi of Jumpstart,which organises The Great Gig every three months,seconds Nair and explains the reason for creating such concept-driven programmes. “The entertainment scene in the city can get stagnant — once a trend picks up,everyone follows it and you end up doing the same thing every time you head out. But with events like these,musicians and audiences get to interact,understand each other,and take away a unique experience that’s hard to come by in city life,” he says.

However,while a few organisers,like those of Live From The Console and Great Gig in the Sky,believe that such entertainment should regularly feature in people’s entertainment plans,others believe that an annual event has a larger,more powerful impact on the audience. “Holding a festival too often dilutes the experience for fans,” says Nair.

B Shankarnayan,festival coordinator for the beer and wine festivals,would like to organise them more frequently,but is finding it hard to get sponsors. “Being a festival that promotes liquor,the best option for us is to tie up with a real estate or lifestyle brand,” he says. “But most marketeers would much rather go with a bigger music festival than us because they get more footfall.”

While most properties grow in time by increasing their offerings,following and credibility as they go along,they don’t always last. More often than not,the organisers are dependent on sponsorships since ticket sales barely cover the costs. The One Tree Music Festival is one such example. “It was a nice property that ran for four years before it was shelved,” says Owen Roncon,director of Oranjuice Entertainment and Fountainhead Promotions and Events,which created the festival. The title sponsor,a liquor brand,reviewed its budgets and decided they couldn’t fund it any more. Having hosted legends like Buddy Guy,50 Cent,Akon and The Alan Parsons Project in the past,Roncon is planning to revive his pet project on a larger scale. “We want to bring it back not as One Tree,but as a world music festival,” says Roncon.