It’s been another amazing year for Vh1 Supersonic, bringing together the best music acts over 3 days, with close to 20,000 festival goers.

From Friday 16^th February to Sunday 18^th February 2024, Pune was again buzzing with the sights and sounds of live music erupting from Mahalaxmi Lawns. Music festivals are a great way to bring together old friends and fostering new ones, and this one festival cemented that need for making friends, the need of the hour, what with Instagrammers all over the place, making reels, posting pics and having the time of their life.

One person’s festival experience is different from that of another, but one thing is common, you can certainly have one incredible time watching music and how live music makes us feel: more alive, more connected and more positive. Thanks to all the many people involved behind the scenes at Vh1 Supersonic, a festival of this size had a resounding success.

At this year’s festival I managed to catch a few artists I had had on my ‘to see’ list for a long time. While it’s wonderful to see so much talent on one stage in one night, you often only need a single, spellbinding performer to completely captivate an audience, and on Day One, King proved once again that he reigns supreme on stage.

On the Main Stage, the Indian hip-hop sensation delivered a performance that left audiences asking for more, although the turnout was a bit less compared to other days. He nevertheless paid tribute to all the ladies, dedicating a special song for Valentine’s Day, a collab performance with his hypeman Roy, and with his topper Maan Meri Jaan his most loved song.

Addressing all the ladies King said, "I'm a person who cannot say I love you, but that doesn’t mean I don't have a love language and there must be more people who have a certain love language but aren’t understood. The world only believes the words that come out of one’s mouth - you don’t speak, and it’s like oh, aapne hint nahidiya. There must be people like me for whom I love you is a small word - you say it to one person, two people, multiple people. But sometimes, all you want to do is stand besides the person you really feel something for. So this song, Mana Teri Ho Na Saki, is dedicated to all girls out there who’ve given their all, but just couldn’t express”. King also belted out his other work like Moment Hai and Mai Badnaam Raja, among other hits.

As King mentioned on stage “Kasam se batau, ye wala Supersonic yaadrakhogetumlog”. And boy did he deliver.

Indie rock band The Yellow Diary brought out their spell of music with thought provoking poetry and a unique stage presence. As a surprise to all their fans, Kamakshi Khanna joined the boys on stage, adding an extra layer of magic to their performance to their song Roz Roz. They proved that they could rock the night wherever they played. The band headed by lead singer Rajan Batra saw the man pushing some killer vocals. Earlier in the evening Lothika gave a memorable performance of her repertoire of songs.

While there was a main stage, like previous years, there was also a much smaller stage to the left of the main stage known as Nexa stage which broke time between two performances with a short cut-off time.

Arunachal Pradesh based singer Taba Chake with his soulful melodies touched everyone’s heart with his mix of slow and uptempo songs in Hindi, English and in his native dialect Nyishi. Chake with his finger style playing, performed songs from his EP ‘Bond with Nature’ and his album ‘Bombay Dreams’. You had songs like Aao Chalein, Udd Chala and Walk with Me among many others.  Others music acts on the same stage before him were Gaia Meera, Dappest&adL, and Saachi who mesmerized with their music on stage with their unique styles.

Day Two raised the bar for yet another exciting day leaving fans eagerly anticipating more incredible musical experiences.

The Nexa stage opened to India’s first all women’s hip hop collective Wild Wild Women, a five member crew who stirred up a storm with their hip hop beats and feminine power. It was a treat to watch them strutting about the stage with hip hop written all over them.

Next up was Goan rapper – hip hop artist, producer, and singer-songwriter, Nathan Joseph Mendes aka Tsumyoki who can’t believe how his life has changed after winning the MTV Europe Music Awards in the Best Indian Local Act in November last year, beating the likes of Divine, Mali, When Chai Met Toast and Dee MC. His performance was a total blast. Apart from his solo music, Tsumyoki performed with his band Goa Trap Culture (GTC) or GTC Crew. The boys hit it off the moment they were on stage.

The Chennai quartet of F 16 taking the stage next, produced some incredible alternative rock pieces that went down well with rock enthusiasts. The Midnight, an American synthwave band composed of Atlanta-based singer-songwriter and vocalist Tyler Lyle, floored everyone with their smooth sounds, not forgetting the amazing sax player. They ended their set with the song Los Angeles.

On the sprawling main stage you also had Kerala based singer songwriter Indie artist Mary Ann with some great melodies, followed by a furore of activity from rapper Naezy, Hanumankind, culminating with Trap lord from America’s AsapFerg who gave a power packed performance even going to the extent of getting into the crowd of festival goers, only to be packed off back on the stage after an almost mob fury engulfed him.

Day Three had an equally energizing playlist set out, opening with singer Gandhar nailing it on the Main stage with an amazing show of beautifully crafted songs. Electronic music producer Kunaal Gurbaxani aka Gurbax definitely one of the freshest DJ/producers to watch out for weaved his magic in his impressive set and had everyone glued to the spot. Sickflip and Friends also pulled an amazing set for all their fans and had the audience on their feet dancing in no time.

The closing night of the festival was yet another big treat with an explosion of sound, light, fireworks and streaming confetti with Major Lazer taking the decks to close the sonic festival with his superb set list of songs everyone is so familiar with.

As the night at the festival closed, curator of the festival Nikhil Chinappa announced that the festival continues at the Official Vh1 Supersonic Arcade After party at the Drome Arena in Pune where Vh1 Supersonic 2024 will officially bring down the curtains. And who better to call the shots for the finale than legendary producer and DJ Diplo, the man behind the phenomenon that is Major Lazer.

While you had these two main stages, there were three other stages on the sprawling venue, namely, BUD X Spectrum stage, The BOXX and of course The Reggae Corner.

This year the BUD X stage was way bigger than all the previous years. Surely someone has taken notice of the ‘bud’ding presence of EDM and Techno lovers. The entire ground was devoted to the genre this year.

So you had high-octane acts at the BUDX Spectrum Stage, while at the same time you couldn’t miss out the unique immersive experiences at the Brew District, complemented by lip-smacking gourmet burgers aka Bud (Beer) and Burgers. Esteemed chefs, culinary instructor Chef Delzad and Goa’s favorite Chef Geoff were at the helm dishing out some lip smacking burgers to complement the smoothness of Budweiser beer. 

Festival attendees were treated to a playground of fun activities with its tattoo and Maybelline hairstyling stations, a net cricket pitch and four signature bars – Beats Bar, Magnum Cocktail Bar, Magnum Beer Bar and Spectrum Stage Bar. The exclusive VIP lounge offered a peerless view of the BUDX Spectrum Stage and its performing artists.

Over three days at India’s biggest home-grown music and lifestyle festival, you could watch some of the best artists from around the world owning the BUDX Spectrum stage, including Adam Beyer, Yotto, Ben Sims Victor Ruiz, Undercatt, Kohra, Arjun Vagale, Ankytrixx, Browncoat, to hot favorites Denis Horvat and Patrice Baumel.

The BUDX Spectrum stage also played host to three exceptional BUDX Uncovered Acts – building on Budweiser’s aim to spotlight and provide a platform to breakout artists from across the country. The stage featured the distinctive sounds of Bangalore-based Music Producer and DJ Weird Sounding Dude, the mastery of New-Delhi-based producer Zequenx, and captivating beats from Bangalore-based DJ and producer Tasnneem - crafting unforgettable moments that lingered in the air long after the music faded.

The Boxx stage, close to the Artist Village was a new addition which focused on giving a platform to budding local artists, like Tonefabrik, Reviver, Quistek, Ainia,, Digiphugg, Jap P, Blithe, Motif B2B Beyond Charlie, among a few other artists, in turn creating loyal fans for themselves. The motley crowd that swayed to their beats only proved that the home-grown scene is also where the magic happens.

A special surprise that almost went unnoticed was an impromptu set by the Jagermasester Brass Band in front of the Jagermasester kiosk who with their unique renditions of popular songs like Tequila, Another One Bites the Dust, had a few people shake a leg.

The most loved Reggae corner vibed as usual, and had a welcome change with an outdoor setting, bringing festival goers together as a community while they grooved to the best beats by Bass Maya, D2 FtJQueen, NZ Selector and 10.000 Lions, Chromaderma, Dr Sel, Rudy Roots, Ital Soup, Major C, Earl Gateshead, Rasta Yuga, among a few others.

The friendly festival, which is now in its 9^th year, made sure you had a wide range of cuisine to choose from. Food-wise there were a good number of stalls serving French fries, chicken rolls, burgers, pizza, noodles, Korean cuisine, shawrama, chicken varieties, biryani and other local and continental fare spread all over the festival venue.

If beer and whisky was not your poison, you could try a swig of a margarita cocktail located at the central point of the venue at the colourfully decorated Jose Cuervo - Margarita Land.  If you needed to rest your aching legs, the very thoughtful Goibibo stall had put out over 2 dozen bean bags for you to laze around. In their fun zone you could also take part in their promo and win exciting Goibibo hampers. Similar promo immersive zones with loads of freebies were also happening at the Skore Zone (condoms anyone?), Maybelline store and of course the Margarita stall who gave out merch caps.

If you arrived early at the venue, you had great deals from all alcohol providers who offered a 1 + 1 from 2 pm to 5. 30 pm. Now that’s a great offer on saving your precious moolah for not only arriving early, but more importantly supporting music acts who begin performing at 3 pm.

Fashion made a statement with many coming in outrageous outfits, from micro minis to shorts, pretty hats and fancy face-painting to the men in colourful tees, shirts, caps and eye - catching sunglasses. You also could spend time at the enclosed special Super flea curated by All You Can Street offering the best of fashion and food under one roof. The motor bike display caught the fancy of not just the pretty young things, but also the young men in the house.

Everything appeared well organised including garbage disposal, the portable toilets, and Oxycool who provided free drinking water to make sure everyone was hydrated.

The festival had a really relaxed vibe to it. All in all a fantastic weekend well spent. I just hope a few more female musicians can be added to future festival line-ups in the 10^th Edition that everyone will surely look forward to.

Vh1 Supersonic which has been going on since 2013, initially in Goa, with a two year Covid break, has now made its permanent place in the heart of Pune, and looking at the immense success India’s first multi genre festival has had, it can surely be said that it has been going from strength to strength ever since.

Reviewed by Verus Ferreira