Since its inception Sunburn Goa the premier and biggest music festival in Asia which is a property of Percept has with each passing instalment become something which the month of December is synonymous with. Every year revellers from across the planet and from all across India as well make their way down for 3 days of completely with possibly the best dance music producers across the planet and a lot more in terms of umpteen amounts of fun.

Each year Sunburn Goa accounts for some great memories and experiences on the picturesque Candolim beach as fans take in some amazing music and for an incredible 3 days live the magical Sunburn experience.

Definitely if there were ever a reason to shout about exponential growth, Sunburn is just that! Having celebrated the 6th edition of it’s flagship event, Sunburn Goa to immense critical acclaim from both media and talent alike, all eyes are now firmly fixed on what’s next for Asia’s premier electronic music brand!

Without further adieu let’s now have you sit back and let you relieve the electrifying atmosphere you experienced on the sands of Candolim while we give you our take on the stellar festival which was Sunburn Goa 2012.

Beginning with production and stage setup with the latest instalment of Sunburn Goa, Percept definitely raised the bar of production whether it was stage, sound, lights and everything else which made it the festival it was.

With 7 stages to choose from, Sunburn 2012 had some mad variety on offer this year. Here’s a look at what’s new at our three main stages this year

Arro’s Cupcake Castle

Arro, a party-lovin’ rabbit who was one of the mascots of this year’s Sunburn, had his own den to hang out in. A massive stage, sprawling itself across 80 ft of sand the Arro’s Cupcake Den added a fun explosion of colour to the festival, and housed artists like the legendary BT, the mohawk touting Albin Myers and the debutantes Showtek among others perform amidst giant cupcakes, beaming multi coloured lasers, and cryo-borgs!!

Cubezoid

One of the most sought after stages after Axwell’s monumental set last year, it saw the likes of Fedde le Grand, AN21, Roger Sanchez and Funkagenda belting out the sweet melodies and bass lines. With its futuristic design, comprising of multiple cubes used as a projection surface for visual 3D mapping programmed by Dark Room TV coming in all the way from the UK, fellow fans could be seen having the time of their lives at this stage.

Helia

Another electronic music fans delight with Sander Van Doorn, the freshest trance music talent in the scene W&W and Sunburn regulars Richard Durand & Norman Doray performing. The visuals for this stage were designed by London-based Immersive, the same guys who designed the visuals for the massive stage at Sunburn Mumbai 2012! It definitely made for a visually delightful experience at one of the main stages featuring at this years Sunburn!

There were 4 other stages which need to be mentioned of, The rabbit hole making it a hatrick with B.R.E.E.D & Vachann Chinappa bringing together an amalgamation of young blood and past masters!

A new addition this year Sunburn was a rather smaller stage called the Canvas, that saw the likes of Nawed Khan, Djuma Soundsystem & the Sunburn Anthem Remix winner.

The mesmeric Butterfly stage also took flight again with some of the best progressive, full-on & morning psy acts gracing the sands of candolim beach! This stage saw the legendary Tristan & Avalon teaming up as Killerwatts, and a man who needs no introduction the extremely gifted Talamasca stirring up a storm on this little ‘trippy’ stage!

Apart from the stages, the production team did a fabulous job with added activities which proved to be a big hit with the fans. Fans this year could experience Neon Volleyball, Go on a hot air balloon ride which also provided for a breathtaking aerial view of planet sunburn.

Back by popular demand was the mechanical bull to give you a ride of your lifetime!!

40 food stalls were also present which were only too willing to serve you lip-smacking food and just when you thought you needed a sip of something awesome to recharge your batteries you could simply go ahead and cool yourself down with some lemon mint coolers and slush counters inside the venue!

Coming to a daily account of the festival, the festival boasted of more than 120 artists across 7 stages & 3 Afterburn venues! Incredible must we say, so lets further illustrate on the festival and run you through some key moments of each day.

Day 1

As we arrived in Goa, we could feel the energy flowing through everyone, the one thing that brought everyone to one place at the same time, and that was Sunburn. Things were a bit different from last year albeit, the box offices and parking spots were shifted a bit further away, which in turn cleared out the traffic a bit. But let’s go to what we’re here to know about. As we entered Sunburn, flashing the infamous Sunburn wristbands, we felt what we feel every year. 7 stages, 120 artists, 10 hours of just losing yourself and being what you want to be for the next 3 days.

(The typical vibe on an early day of Sunburn)

Our team entered from Gate B, and as always, that gets you to the first stage, the experimental stage – Canvas. This stage is always a personal favorite as you get to see music being produced in the most non-conventional way, with minimum crowd, just the enthusiasts enjoying what they’ve come for. As we moved head, passing some people playing on a foosball table near-by, we reach the mighty Cubezoid, and we were not short of being impressed.

Getting to the artists, Day 1 saw a lot. The much anticipated BT (live) was absolutely astounding. BT delivered exactly what his fans expected and then threw it over-the-top leaving all his fans wondering if there’s any limit to how much this one man can deliver.

Thinking of mixing it up, we went to see Firefly do his psychedelic set and we were impressed. Firefly has so much energy in him, something similar to what one would see at a Ma Faiza set, and Firefly looked so pleased to be here. A very decent turnout for a good artist, we certainly enjoyed but enough was enough, it was now time to choose between the headlining artists, and the big question was, SVD or AN21? We thought, why not both? So we headed for Sander van Doorn first.

As we approached the Helia stage, we saw something astonishing. There was so much crowd, so much so that we had to start our way from the back and squeeze our way in. But it was all worth it. The Doorn records head honcho did not fall short of delivering what a headlining artist would. Dropping tracks like Kangaroo and Nothing Inside, the crowd just seemed to lose themselves in the music.

Talking about SVD, check out Sander van Doorn’s interview with Percept joint head honcho and the man behind Sunburn, Mr Shailendera Singh

Sander van Doorn dropping bombs on the crowd

Now, not being able to have a solid connection to the internet, thank you Vodafone, we weren’t informed about AN21’s set being pushed back to the last day. So as we approached the Cubezoid, it hit us by surprise that AN21 had shaved his trademark beard and grown a little taller. But alas no, this was none other than Norman Doray, and we were happy about that, so we stayed. Norman Doray also packed a lot of energy to his show, where towards the end he stood up on top of the decks to pump the crowd. With that a super first day at Sunburn came to an end and there was no crowd crush as people exited and people got out with utmost comfort, big ups to Percept for organizing a good floor plan.

(A surprise set by Norman Doray)

Certainly a day full of surprises and some great music. Click the YouTube widget below to relive the whole action from Day-1 in case you missed or in case you miss Sunburn just as much as we do.

Day 2

With Day 1 leaving us wanting more, we wake up to Day 2, prepared for more. We walk to see Sunburn’s youngest DJ, the extremely talented (S)haan, blasting away the crowd with some of the most recent charting hits. Despite it being a bit early, it was surprising to see a huge crowd gathered at almost all stages. But alas, time wasn’t on our side. So we rushed over to see the famous duo act, Lost Stories. Not much of a surprise that Lost Stories rounded up a good crowd as they always do. Lost Stories closed their set with Calling by Ingrosso and Alesso and the crowd absolutely loved it.

Now to mix things up a bit, we headed over to the Arro stage to witness B.R.E.E.D. play his set, and WOW, what a set it was indeed. B.R.E.E.D. took away the crowd in what appeared to be an amazing dubstep set, sporting a Mohawk hat whilst letting the crowd go loose. The crowd embraced it and definitely expressed their love. But as B.R.E.E.D. ended his set, the crowd stayed put for a reason. The following artist to take on Arro was Albin Myers. Albin Myers blew the crowd away with bangin’ tracks like Hells Bells and Fade into Darkness. With no time to spare, we headed over to the Cubezoid stage to witness the night’s headlining act, Fedde Le Grand.

(B.R.E.E.D. sporting the Indian Mohawk hat)

Fedde Le Grand’s set was arguably the best set we witnessed at Sunburn ’12. Two hours of insane hits like So Much Love and his recently released, Raw. Somewhere in the middle, Fedde catches everyone by surprise as he plays his own mix of ‘Seven Nation Army’ by White Stripes. It was great to see the crowd go so well with it and Fedde definitely killed the night.

With that the incredible Day-2 of Sunburn Goa 2012 came to an end and believe me when I say this all we could talk about for the next few hours was the tremendous energy during Fedde Le Grand’s set and his unbelievable set! Relive some moments of Day-2 via the YouTube widget below!

Day 3

We’re now down to the final day and we were looking forward to some great acts. And oh boy, little did we know that that was exactly what was in store for us. The energy on the last day was still on it’s tip, if not, maybe even more. As we entered, Paul Thomas was already blazing some great tracks and we could feel the energy enter our body. We stayed for a while but not too long, because Highlight Tribe was ready to set the crowd on fire at the Litli stage.

After Highlight Tribe, we headed over to the one woman everyone was looking forward to, Pearl. Pearl’s set was, obviously, mind-blowing. Dedicating her set to the country’s brave heart Nirbhaya, Pearl played one of the most emotional and yet brilliant sets we’ve heard.

After Pearl’s set it was time for the crowd to bear witness to the legendary Paul van Dyk who arguably may have had the most crowd, with Fedde Le Grand being a strong contender, but albeit, both artists well-deserved. We stayed quite a while through Paul’s electrifying set and then moved towards AN21’s set. It’s absolutely great when you walk towards a stage and you can hear the crowd losing it, and the music surfing the crowd. We must say, we had the most fun at AN21’s set. The brother of 1/3^rd Swedish House Mafia member, Steve Angello, had lot to offer for Sunburn. His set was packed with his charting hits and other commercial hits like Greyhound and Save the World.

AN21 at his set on the final day of Sunburn Goa 2012

AN21 also performed a sit-down, where he asked the entire crowd to sit down and then spring back up at the drop of ‘Save the World (Knife Party Remix)’, and it was executed brilliantly. AN21 was at a loss of words towards the end as he took the mic and expressed his love for India.

Just then, fireworks shot up into the sky from all sides, and a beautiful ending was born. We couldn’t have asked for a better finale to 3 very epic days. The final day of this magical 3 day festival was unbelievable, relieve the exceptional Day-3 via the YouTube widget below now!

A big thumbs up to Percept and Mr. Shailendra Singh for organizing and executing Sunburn 2012 so well. We don’t think anyone else would’ve been able to do so. We look forward to an eternity worth of Sunburn to attend to in the future.

We’d also like to thank Percept for making us their exclusive digital content partner, it was a pleasure working for them. Also, don’t forget to look out for us at Swedish House Mafia Mumbai and Bangalore, where we will be performing reviews too and we hope we see you there!