Sunburn Season 7 was arguably the biggest festival season on the planet. While the entire world has eyes on this homegrown Indian Intellectual Property, India is doing its part to honour its own.
On 22 May, 2014 Sunburn was awarded – not one, but two! – of the nation’s highest honours for events and experiences: the WOW Awards. An initiative of EVENTFAQS, WOW Awards was conceptualised in 2008 as the industry benchmark for excellence in brand experience creation. The WOW Awards are the only awards in this space, and this year, they celebrated the best loved and greatest milestones of the LIVE industry.
Sunburn was the big winner of the night, winning the Gold in the two largest categories of the evening – ‘Entertainment IP of the year’ and ‘Entertainment Event of the year’. As ‘the man behind the brand’, Shailendra Singh – Jt MD of Percept and Inceptor of Sunburn – hit the stage to collect the Gold Awards, St Andrew’s Auditorium erupted in applause. The crowd went ballistic. The entire Sunburn team had showed up to celebrate the success of their brand, infusing a festival spirit in the ceremony.
An elated Singh said: “We’ve come quite a way from our small experiment on the beach in 2007, to becoming Asia’s Largest Music Festival Brand. Season 7 was completely mind-blowing, and I have to thank the Sunburn team for that. They have worked relentlessly and emotionally to create the world’s best EDM experience, right here in India. They are the hardest working team I have ever had the honour of captaining. I dedicate the ‘Entertainment IP of the Year Award’ to the Sunburn Team. We have created history with Sunburn!”
And created history, they have. After IPL, Sunburn is the first, and only, intellectual property to be exported out of India. In a country importing everything from fast food chains to clothing brands and Hollywood films, Sunburn is truly a ‘Glocal’ export – produced locally and consumed globally. Sunburn is a source of pride, not just for dance music lovers, but for the entire nation.
Singh adds: “The second award, ‘Entertainment Event of the Year’, I dedicate to the real reason behind everything that we do: The Sunburn fans. Sunburners across the world are passionate about brand Sunburn and unconditional with their love. They have taken Sunburn from an experimental music festival to a movement and now, to a lifestyle. Sunburn has always been and will be: of the fans, for the fans, by the fans. Let’s never stop Living.Loving.Dancing!”
