High ‘Temperature’ at Vh1 Supersonic
Kicking off the fifth edition from last year’s three stages, the fest brought in six stages this year, with the main stage Sonic Realm taking you into fairytale land with an Alice in Wonderland setup.
Security was at its peak at the fest with two checks almost mandatory. At the entrance, you could either chose the Laboratory Supersonique as you entered the venue or head to the Spectrum EDM stage or the main stage Sonic Realm. Like last year, the Reggae Stage was back spinning out some classic reggae tunes on CD and vinyl.
The first day of the three-day festival held from 9th, 10th, and 11th February, saw Indie acts like Komorebi, Parekh & Singh, Clayton Hogermeer, Kohra, and Midival Punditz, with the Live Arena stage offering the topper for the night Nucleya, Dillion Francis and Major Lazer on the Sonic Realm stage. Anyone who was at the festival will tell you how packed the venue was, and going by statistics from last year, this season saw the highest number of footfalls, with a total attendance of around 12,000 people on all three days. Major Lazer the crowd puller on the first day began his set with one of Bollywood’s iconic track Choli Ke Peeche moving over to Kendrick Lamar’s Humble and Ed Sheeran’s Shape of You, besides of course his own songs. Lazer showed his love for Bollywood with more unexpected tracks like Ladki Kar Gayi Chul and a few others.
Day Two saw a few festival goers walking with a face mask, a replica of what was to follow later that night. Christopher Comstock, known professionally as Marshmello, an American electronic dance music producer and DJ, had the mask head and created pandemonium with the crowd going crazy with his music.
Though the day started with some great acts like Madboy Mink, followed by the Shillong based Soulmate who gave a rousing performance playing the blues, the Ska Vengers that featured the legendary Kishore Sodha on sax, gave a splendid performance. The Spectrum stage witnessed performances like Ash Roy and Tuhin Mehta, while The Laboratoire stage had galactic performances from Raja Kumari, while DJ Uri played the turntables with Ryan Sadri on sax.
The last day at the fest saw indie acts like Aswekeepsearching, Pentagram, The F 16s and American rock band Incubus to the Spectrum stage offering a fantastic set by Arjun Vagale.
The main act for the night was by Sean Paul, with audiences expecting a night to remember. Sadly, the Jamaican rapper who sported an orange jacket was not in his element but managed to raise the bar a bit with songs like Temperature, She Doesn’t Mind and a few others.
if you didn’t like the music, there were lots to do at the sprawling 35,000 sq ft venue, from slides, swings, de-stress tents, a mechanical bull and of course a huge food court and a flea market.
Vh1 Supersonic gave us memories we will always cherish. Can’t wait for next year
– Text and Photos by Verus Ferreira