Sunburn, Asia’s biggest and most popular Dance Music Festival, bagged the Gold Award in the prime category - ‘Festival of the Year’ – Music (On-ground & Digital) for the Sunburn Festival Goa held in December 2021, at the prestigious WOW Awards Asia 2022 held on 20th August 2022 in Mumbai.

It was a distinctive and triumphant victory for Sunburn as the Music Festival has won top honors every year since the inception of the WOW Awards in 2009, therein consolidating Sunburn’s leadership position in the Live Music Festival domain in Asia and being a prime driver of tourism into the State of Goa every year in the month of December.

Sunburn Festival Goa 2021 culminated successfully despite the pandemic induced challenges and the many protocols that were implemented to ensure a safe festival for fans. Aptly themed “#LifeIsCalling’, the 15^th edition of the festival saw a spectacular three-day physical showcase featuring over 60 elite artists across 3 stages. In order to ensure maximum reach, Sunburn held both the on-ground and digital live stream and ensured a limited capacity congregation of fans who enjoyed a great mix of commercial, techno and trance genres of music. The limited capacity event recorded a cumulative footfall of 50,000 fully vaccinated fans even while adhering to all the COVID-19protocols to ensure absolute fan safety. In spite of being a limited capacity event, Sunburn Goa drove substantial inbound tourism to Goa and value added to the entire eco-system of the State during peak tourist season in December.

Said Karan Singh, CEO, Sunburn said, “Although Sunburn Goa 2021 was a small event given the pandemic and associated protocols, we were determined to host a safe yet impactful event and once again bring back the lively open-air entertainment experience in the festival’s place of birth. Sunburn Goa 2021 was a Limited Capacity event and followed global live event best practices and all applicable guidelines. We are grateful to the Goa State Government authorities and locals who supported us every step of the way to create an impactful, memorable and successful event after a hiatus of two years.”

Sunburn also bagged a Gold in the ‘Live Stream Events of the Year’ category for the 'Sunburn for Goa' event, a Live Stream EDM event that was held on 29 August 2020 to create awareness of the harsh impact of Covid-19 on the tourist destination of Goa and raise funds for Goa's fight against the pandemic. This was one of the first few live stream music events held during the peak of the Covid pandemic and Goa Tourism partnered with Percept Live to hold this novel fundraising event. ‘Sunburn for Goa’ raised around Rs 25 lakh in the first few minutes across various social media and other fundraising platforms and the amount was handed over to the Chief Minister's COVID Relief Fund-Goa which was utilized for efforts towards COVID-19 relief & welfare across the State of Goa.

Goa was the birthplace of Sunburn in 2007, and over the years Sunburn grew into one of the Top 3 Music Festivals in the world, while positioning Goa on the global dance music destination map. Given the close relationship Sunburn has shared with Goa since its inception, Sunburn promptly used the platform of Music to give back to the beautiful state of Goa and help the authorities in their relentless fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Added Karan Singh, CEO, Sunburn, “Sunburn for Goa was our way of paying back and thanking the beautiful destination of Goa and its people for all their love and support they have given us into making Sunburn the super global iconic success that it is today. The donations received went a long way in fighting the pandemic, ensuring confidence amongst the public and restoring Goa into a prime Tourist Destination once again.”