India now has a legit music festival scene, but events' programming must be as innovative as packaging

According to industry estimates, almost 25 music festivals are held in India, which is not bad for a country which has witnessed festivals for only a decade It’s possible to attend a different Indian music festival every weekend in February. SulaFest was held at Sula Vineyards in Nashik last week, the Mahindra Blues Festival is being staged in Mumbai this weekend, Vh1 Supersonic will take place in Pune next week, and the World Sacred Spirit Festival, which focuses on Sufi and folk music from across the world, will unfold in Jodhpur during the last weekend of the month. At a panel discussion at the All About Music conference in Mumbai in August last year, we heard that ticket, F&B and merchandise sales make back only 20 to 30 percent of the costs for the Bacardi NH7 Weekender — arguably the country’s most popular multi-genre festival — the Pune edition of which was attended by over 50,000 people across three days this past December. We’ve also come to expect that SulaFest will feature assorted dance-friendly ‘world music’ ensembles and at least one international indie favourite, and that Supersonic will have one commercial EDM star along with one alternative electronic artist.