Sunburn Delhi 2015 was a study in beautiful chaos. And speaking of the enormity, just mindblowing. Now in its fourth year of existence, Sunburn stacked their lineup to absolutely incredible heights. From trap and bass and hip-hop to progressive house and electro and any form of electronic genre you could name, the grounds echoed with beats, bass, and good vibrations. Even before the festival had opened its gates, we knew we were in for a wild ride. Among those gracing the stage were Russian duo Matisse & Sadko, Dutch heavyweights Chuckie and R3hab and French mastermind DJ Snake along with our very own homegrown talents SHAAN and MojoJojo!. This event was exactly the bang that we needed on a perfect Sunday evening to last through the week ahead.
THE VENUE
Escaping from the crowded Delhi scene, the open air venue of Ambience Island in Gurgaon was nothing less than perfect. Upon reaching the venue, we saw a number of ravers strolling outside with sheer excitement on their faces and eyes proclaiming pronounced hysteria. As we entered, we could hear the final soundchecks being done which took our excitement to another level. By now we were as excited as every other fan to enter ‘Planet Sunburn’ and experience its magnificence. The doors opened at about 4pm to an ecstatic crowd and with our bands tied on to our wrists we found ourselves entering the venue. What struck each of us in the first instance as we entered was the grandeur of the stage which almost felt like it was a fortress. Clearly, Sunburn had lived up to the unbelievable pre-festival hype that had been generated. But little did we know at that time what would go down in the next few hours.
SOUND & VISUALS
Sunburn’s production has always been stunning. LED Panels flanked in and around the artist along with an incredible lighting set-up ticks the standard check boxes for Sunburn’s stage set-up list but something about this particular gig made everything seem bigger and better as always. Couple those with amazing visuals courtesy Wolves throughout the whole concert and you provide the ravers an experience they will never forget. Did I mention the crowd being subjected to confetti blasts and an awesome display of pyro? The sound setup was exemplary and was much appreciated by the crowd.
The Artists
An incredible line-up awaited the crowds as Delhi’s edition of Sunburn Festival kicked off nicely (read: brutally) with our very own DJ/Producer MojoJojo! aka Akshay Johar bursting out some mean beats which included tracks from his latest album “Shots Fired” as well as some ruthless tracks such as “Recess” by Skrillex, “Masta Blasta 2.0” by Dillon Francis and the Party Favor remix of Diplo’s mega hit “Express Yourself“. The crowd hit off when Akshay dropped the dynamic collaborative track “Bun Up The Dance” between Skrillex and Dillon Francis. Even managing to drop supergroup Jack U’s track “Beat Steady Knockin’” and Major Lazer material, he had laid down a bass heavy set giving the crowd a peek at what’s on for tonight and paving the way for the rest of the artists.
Next up was SUNBURN’s resident DJ SHAAN, but wait hold up. No rush. SUNBURN revealed their Bourgeois Burglary short movie which they had earlier revealed along with its trailer. The short clip features SHAAN who supposedly plays gangster along with DJ SA as the club manager and Anish Sood and Dualist Inquiry aka Sahej Bakshi in comical roles trying to get access into a club. Accompanying it was the Phase 1 Lineup of Sunburn Goa which was the main idea behind the feature film. Moving on, SHAAN was set to start out and so he did with the vocal piece of Laura Evans from his stunning track “Light Up The World“. The crowd seemed packed by now. Playing out tracks from his own catalogue such as his most recent release “Fire” and a trap monster edit by Carnage of BL3R and Andres Fresko‘s track “Jumpoff“, he was keeping the crowd on their feet. His remix of the platinum record “Where R U Now” by Jack U and Justin Bieber and his edit of the emotional track “See You Again” were extraordinary. But the most special part of his set had to be when the audience had their mobile flashlights up for Shaan’s track ” Light Up The World“. It truly was a special moment during the evening with Shaan raising the Indian Flag high.
It was soon time for Russian duo Matisse & Sadko to take over the stage and they weren’t short of energy. For the first half while Sadko was busy on the decks, Matisse constantly interacted with the crowd which was super fun as the way the crowd were responding to their set was fantastic. Big ups to the Delhi people. Playing their original productions such as “Tengu” and other massive tracks like “Timecode” by Thomas Newson and Joey Dale and some high energy electro house tracks such as “Never Stop” by Exodus and Rivero and “Louder” by AN21 & Matt Nash there was some serious adrenaline rushing through the audience. The most anticipated track from them was their massive collaboration with Martin Garrix for “Dragon” as well as their follow up track “Break Through The Silence” which they dropped during the later half to which the fans reacted with loud cheers. They ended the magic on a high note debuting new original material layered over the acapella of Tove Lo‘s track “Stay High” which was a scintillating progressive house track full of melody and was the perfect song to end their set with. And we firmly believe they have become fan favorites by now.
Regarded as the founder of Dirty Dutch, DJ Chuckie played out a colossal set to a packed audience and had the crowd greet him with a roar as he kicked off with some heavy electro bangers. His set featured tracks like “Watch Out For This” By Major Lazer, “Under Control” By Alesso and Calvin Harris, Botnek remix of Martin Garrix‘s track “Animals” which infused some incredible energy into the crowd. Something which will be fondly remembered is the way Chuckie showed his MC skills and “DJ Chuckie in da house” became a fan favorite. Adding to the fun part of the night was when Chuckie dropped the old school “Are You Ready For This” track by Jock Jams and I’m sure every 90s person knows this track. Later into his set he went on to drop tunes of the likes of Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike‘s “Tremor” and “Mammoth” and Avicii‘s hit track “Waiting For Love“. Did we mention that Chuckie has some insane scratching skills if you did notice. At the back of our minds, we Delhi people did hope that he would drop his mashup of the famed song “Tum Hi Ho” by Arijit Singh. And so he did, not once but twice and the crowd sang along happily. The Dirty Dutch boss premiered a new original called “Energetic” and as the title suggests the track oozed out some serious energy. He concluded his set with an energetic remix by W&W of ” This Is What It Feels Like” by Trance legend Armin Van Buuren which was a moment worth being captured.
Now we all thought it would be R3hab who would present himself after which DJ Snake would close the night. Well it turned out to be the exact opposite. But then are we even complaining? And as they say, the sooner, the better. The main man who had been the most anticipated artist from the whole lineup finally blessed us with his presence and the crowd just went berserk. Kicking off his set in his own signature style and letting us know that “Our dreams have been fulfilled“, boy we were in for a ride. Frankly, the whole idea of DJ Snake performing right infront of you does take a bit of time to sink in. Moving on he dropped “Bounce” by fellow French DJ Mercer and the crowd did exactly the same. Other monstrous tracks in his set were “Break Your Neck” by G.T.A and Valentino Khan and the colossal remix by 4B of Congorock‘s track “Babylon“.
The night wouldn’t have felt complete if he hadn’t dropped his essentials. Kicking off his originals lineup with “Turn Down For What” to which the crowd exploded and so did the pyrotechnics. DJ Snake went on to prepare the crowd for Delhi’s first “Get Low“. It was a successful and a massive “Get Low” drop and if you needed anything more to rejoice about, he even dropped the dubstep remix of the track by Trollphace which sealed the deal. Snake injected love, energy, and confetti into the crowd leaving the audience hooked. The crowd seemed to be infused with a new bout of energy as they let out cheers, shouting themselves hoarse, yet raging harder & harder. Buzzing with energy DJ Snake was in full swing as the speakers boomed in unison with the soles of our feet. Drifting from his bass heavy set, he smoothly transitioned into an Oasis vs. Major Lazer & DJ Snake & Tiësto & MOTi – Wonderwall Lean On mashup which was exceptional as they crowd chanted the vocals. Till now his set had just been increasing the energy to further levels when he dropped his remix of Calvin Harris & Disciples‘ track “How Deep Is Your Love“. “Where Are U Now” By Jack U was a nice addition to his already pumped up set. Dishing out his own power packed productions such as “Slow Down” and his remix of Aluna George‘s track “You Know You Like It” were some clear crowd favorites.
The Frenchman knew that we needed “Lean On” and he ended his set with exactly that. The most streamed song of all time was loved by all as the crowd sang along. What I can say after his performance is that he is a humble human being and India loves him. We hope he comes back soon. ( P.S. : He did say he’ll be back very soon.) We’ll just go by his word then.
Now wait up. The party wasn’t over yet as Dutch powerhouse R3hab was due to unleash his forces. Our legs may have been trembling due to the excessive dancing but we were ready to happily dance the pain away. Known to be one of those DJ’s who plays a set full of electro house bangers and melodies, he came out of the dark and started to take the venue by storm and kicked it off with his collaborative track “Flashlight” with Deorro.
The grounds boomed with his originals like “Karate“, “Tiger“, “Won’t Stop Rocking” any many more. Calvin Harris was a favorite on his playlist as he made the crowd go bonkers with their collaboration “Burnin’ Up” and several other of Calvin’s tracks such as “Blame“, “Outside” and “CUBA“. R3hab didn’t miss the opportunity to showcase his latest collaboration with KSHMR for “Strong” to which the crowd responded with some heavy cheers. One of the main crowd favorites was Deorro and MAKJ‘s track “Ready!” which caused complete chaos.
During the last leg of his set, he had an amazing flashlight moment as he connected with the audience by playing the intro of Armin Van Buuren‘s track “Ping Pong” which was absolute fun and dropped it by playing his collaboration track “How We Party” with VINAI . R3hab took a moment to bring out SUNBURN founder Shailendra Singh. Sadly, R3hab apologized saying “they cut off the sound” as the crowd was willing to go ahead for one last drop but he thanked everyone in the audience.
What made the headlining sets spectacular apart from the music were the visuals and astonishing pyrotechnics the Sunburn team had arranged. Adding to the festival’s feel were sunburn balloons, confetti bops and of course the stupendous lighting.
It would be an understatement to say that Sunburn Delhi was a spectacular outing for all dance music fans alike. With a power packed stage catered to by some of the world’s finest artists, the event was a wonderful experience from beginning till the end and definitely one that is bound to be remembered for quite a while.
We would like thank the entire team at Sunburn for such an amazing festival and look forward to next year’s installment.
Photo Credits : Sunburn
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