When you have headliners such as Anna Marie, CKay, TYGA, Indian acts Divine, Farhan Akhtar, Anuv Jain, you know you are at one of the best festivals in the world, writes Verus Ferreira

Where would you find a London based Bengali native singer Tara Lily pulling off Neo jazz, or Afro beats from Nigerian singer CKay? You would find this and other surprises only at the multi genre festival Vh1 Supersonic.

Kicking off the eighth edition, Vh1 Supersonic had festival goers reaching Mahalaxmi Lawns in Pune in time to catch every act that took the stage over the long weekend of 24^th, 25^th and 26^th February 2023. The festival had five stages, with the main stage that had all the main headliners taking centre stage.

At the entrance to the festival grounds and if you were early and trying to beat the Pune heat, you could take recourse in a tent. And right there next to you was the BudX Spectrum stage that saw techno and house acts come alive.

If you wanted to grab a bite, you could check out the food trucks and the stalls that were serving burgers, noodles, shawrama, to Indian and continental food, topping it with chocolate stations, waffles, slushies, ice – cream and gourmet coffees.

Compared to earlier years, the Super Street Flea market had designers showcasing everyday fashion wear, crafted jewellery, quirky gifts, to a dedicated thrift shop to men’s and ladies accessories. You also had a unique shop selling, believe it or not, Donkey Milk soap that the owner said would soften your skin dramatically in a few days after using the magical soap. Surely we got a ‘kick’ out of listening to such stuff. But delving into a bit more, we realised that there was infact truth seen as the lady at the counter had lotions, creams and other beauty items for different skin tones. Though expensive it would serve the purpose it was set to do.

In the years that went by, on one of the pathways in the festival area, you just couldn’t miss the beautiful sound of reggae wafting through. The 10,000 Lions Soundsystem reggae stage is a regular draw at the fest and at any time you would find a select crowd dancing to its groovy and infectious melodies. But if you didn’t want to dance, you could make small talk with the friendly firangis handling the stage. This year however the scene was different. Looking at the crowd who used to really jam with the reggae beats, the folks at Vh1 Supersonic decided to allot them a stage just for reggae music. And voila, you had the crowd jamming to everything reggae in the garden area.

Towards the left of the Main stage you had the NEXA Live Stage that saw acts like Sunflower Tape Machine, Kavya and Peter Cat Recording Co.

The last music hole was the SOCIAL stage that is unique for its theme based venue representing this time Cirque Du Social. Keeping with the theme, you had jugglers, robot man, and also a set up resembling the circus arena. Around the festival area you couldn’t miss out on the two well dressed elephant statues. Very innovative we’d say. And of course you had the Social food counters serving everything from their menu, like burgers, fries and rice delicacies. This stage overlooked the artist village, so if you were lucky enough, you could get a glimpse of the headlining acts looking your way.

Despite a very late start on Day One, the highlight surely was our very own Prateek Kuhad who got the crowd singing to his songs, be it his up-tempo hits or his ballads, the crowd knew it. His playlist included crowd favourites likeTune Kaha, Cold/mess, Kasoor, and Dil Beparwah, leaving the Superfam with the perfect vibe to carry home.

The BudX Spectrum stage saw techno and house acts come alive, so you had a host of DJs like the globally acclaimed electronic duo from Canada Bob Moses, giving audiences a dose of their songs like Enough to Believe, The Blame, Desire. There was also Praveen Achary X Weird Sounding Dude, who kept the pulse going. Innellea’s setwas an audio-visual treat as he took the audience on a three-dimensional graphical journey.  

On The NEXA stage, you couldn’t miss out the jazz fused songs by Peter Cat Recording Co with lead singer Suryakant Sawhey giving off his best. Pune’s Easy Wanderlings were promising and a band to watch out for.

Day Two saw a great bunch of artists from early evening beginning with Ranj X Clifr, followed by an outstanding set by Bangalore’s T.Ill Apes. Nikhil Chinapa X Browncoat, Lifafa and Seedhe Maut were the other favorites to look for. Rapper Divine gave a power packed performance on the main stage with fans grooving to every song he sang. The Gully Boy got the crowd into a frenzy the moment he got on stage with his team. His songs Apna Gully Mein, Apna Time Aayega, Jungli Sher to Kohinoor and the repetitious Vibe Hai, got his fans jumping and dancing all along to his 45 minute act. You could feel the excitement of the festival goers as they joined the Mumbai singer singing in unison. The lighting and stage pyrotechnics visuals were something to lose yourself into.

Brit EDM duo CamelPhat brought in some funky house and techno. Expectations were high on American rapper TYGA, the final act for the evening, but sadly he gave an average performance, even ending his set a few minutes before the 10 pm deadline.

Day Three and the temperature reached a crescendo with a knockout vibe by Kohra X Zokhuma and Arjun Vagale jamming. Indian performer Kavya (Trehan) also stunned the crowd with her beautiful songs. Farhan Akhtar’s dynamic performance on songs like Reach For The Stars, My Friend of Yours, I Don't Know, and many more, left the crowd spellbound.

Anuv Jain was truly in his element, like always. Anyone who has heard him will tell you that the youngster is not only cute but a great singer too and knows how to swoon you. Jain mesmerised the crowd with song after melodic song. He truly was the darling of the crowd who just wanted more of the young singer who is known for his spellbinding music on the guitar. Jain, who has charmed millions, put a spell on his audience with his record-breaking songs like Baarishein, and played crowd-favourites like Missing, Alag Aasmaan, Gul, and Riha.

The final day also saw a talent to watch out for - Brit singer Tara Lily. Lily has an Indian connect and her music is inspired from some of the great legends of jazz. Her music was truly classy although a bit loud at times, but it was well lapped up by audiences. The multi- talented singer took the audience by storm with her formidable vocals, belting songs like Hotel Amour, The Ones I Lost and many neo-jazz hits. The evening also saw international Afro beats musician CKay, whose popularity skyrocketed on social media and on global music charts with Love Nwantiti. The Nigerian thrilled fans with his first-ever performance in India.

The last and final main act of the festival saw Brit singer Anne-Marie perform solo for the first time in India, performing chartbusters we are all known of. Songs like Rockabye, Friends, 2002, SAD B!TCH, and Psycho on the Main Stage drew wide attention from the crowd who knew every song of the singers. Anna Marie truly showed her love for the country by speaking a few words in Hindi.

Rapper Paradox, who rose to fame with MTV Hustle 2.0, hit an immaculate flow with hits like Jaadugar, Rihaai, and songs from his new EP, gave a kickass set, marking the curtain call for Vh1 Supersonic 2023.

The venue had lots to offer in terms of keeping you busy, if you ever got tired of the music. Moving from each stage to another would give you enough exercise to lose a few calories. You could also check out the several installations like the old styled swings, de-stress tents, corporate brand counters holding contests with exciting giveaways, and an all girls bar. This time however there were a lot more tables and seating arrangements made for everyone.

Fashion was at its best we’d say. While you had men in flashy tees, Hawaiian pants, a few of the women sported designer hats, micro miniskirts with plunging necklines, shorts, hairdos (resembling aliens) in all colors and high heel shoes, high enough to catch sight of their favorite artist.

Amongst the huge crowd at the fest, you couldn’t miss spotting a bit of celebs in the crowd. You had MTV Roadies and MTV Splitsvilla fame-bearers like Sapna Malik, Trevon Dias, Prince Narula and Akashlina Chandra who were spotted enjoying the festival, along with MTV Roadies Revolution and MTV Splitsvilla X4 contestants Hamid Barkzi and Aamir Hossein.  Actors Nauheed Cyrusi, Krystle D’souza, Radhika Bangia were spotted while music artists Sahaj Bakshi a.k.a Dualist Inquiry turned up too.

The organisers would do well to take note of a few major overalls for the future. Dustbins were all over the place and were cleaned regularly, but no one knew which bin to use for dry and wet garbage. So it would be wise to label each bin in the right category to bring a level of cleanliness to the festival.

Alcohol was flowing more than water, more of that later, as beer bars were all over the place, serving beers to whiskey and vodka; you could enjoy your poison while you enjoyed your favourite act. However a few complaints came in of serpentine queues at the washrooms, as some washrooms suddenly gave way, putting a long run to another location. The organisers would do well to address this issue next year and add atleast four washrooms at strategic places in the festival area.

When you’re in the tropics, it’s going to get hot. And the best drink to cool you down would be a chilled beer. But the price tag of Rs 400 to Rs 550 was a tad expensive to a young crowd attending the festival, read college goers. Also Budweiser, Corona and Hoegaarden were charging patrons Rs 50 to Rs 100 for their red / black/ white plastic glasses. So inspite of buying beer from them, you also had to pay for the glass. It’s totally unfair to charge for the beer and the plastic glass. Many who refused to pay for the glass, were seen using the glass bottle for consumption of beer, thus endangering their lives and others in case of a mishap. However after a lot of complaining from many attendees, day two and three saw less instances of the beer counters charging for the glasses.

Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink, goes the adage. So like I said, beer was flowing more than water. While it was announced that water would be freely available, by early evening the large 10 litre bottles (jars) at the counters went dry. And even those counters (there were only two counters at the festival) that had water in their bottles asked patrons to bring paper glasses to the counter to drink water. On the one hand you are thirsty and dying for a sip of water, when you reach the counter, you are asked to get a paper glass. It would do well if the organisers had set up more counters with a tanker full of water with paper glasses for the over 18,000 people who attended the festival. If not, sell water bottles at cost price to its attendees.

Other than the minor hiccups, the fest had memories to take home, not one but many.

Can’t wait for next year.

By Verus Ferreira

Photos courtesy: Moes Art