By Rajan Narayan

CHIEF Minister of Goa Pramod Sawant has confirmed that the Sunburn owner has applied for permission to hold the mega Sunburn electronic dance music event in south Goa this year. The Sunburn organizers have already started advance booking for the first day of the three-day event scheduled to start on December 28 to 30, 2024.
Both president of the Travel & Tourism Association of Goa, Jack Sukija, and Goa Chamber of Commerce President Srinivas Dempo have expressed their support for Sunburn going to south Goa, provided the protocols are followed. The ground reality is that Sunburn has little respect for any rules whether it is noise pollution or the use and abuse of trucks at the venue. Understandably, Sunburn in south Goa has provoked strong opposition from senior south Goa residents and spokespersons like advocate Radharao Gracious. The south Goa Member of Parliament Capt Viriato Fernandes has made it clear that Sunburn electronic dance music is not part of Goan culture.
Social media is full of vehement protests against shifting the Sunburn nuisance from north Goa to south Goa.
But history shows that whatever Shailendra Mehta, the Sunburn promoter, wants, he usually gets. Year after year there have been protests against the Sunburn festival, except for one year during the tenure of then Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar; Sunburn has always managed to get permission. This is despite all the controversies surrounding the EDM event.

SOME DIE!
I RECALL that in the very first few years of Sunburn, a young lady was found on the adjacent beach dead on the beach of a drug overdose. Sunburn came up in Candolim with the patronage of the then Calangute MLA Agnelo Fernandes. Indeed, it was located on land owned by the Calangute MLA. In subsequent years Sunburn shifted to Anjuna and Vagator. Every year there has been suspense over Sunburn being held at all. But every year the government has been bullied or bribed into granting permission. Sunburn promoter Shailendra Mehta has contacts not only in high places in Goa but also in Delhi.
It may be recalled that Shailendra Mehta played a major role in the International Film Festival of India held in Goa in 2023. He took the credit for bringing Hollywood actor-producer Michael Dougles as the chief guest at IFFI 2023.
Last year Sunburn was held under the patronage of Delilah and Michael Lobo. Delilah Lobo is the MLA from the Saligao constituency where the Sunburn venue was located. Objections from locals were overcome by distribution of complimentary tickets to young residents of Anjuna, Vagator, Candolim and Calangute.
Last year the anti-Sunburn activists moved the High Court against Shailendra Mehta and other organizers of the EDM festival. The noise decibels were kept checked and under control by the north Goa district collector. Sunburn was stopped on several occasions for exceeding permissible noise levels. However, the concert continued for all three days after the Calangute and Siolim MLAs intervened. Sunburn organizers claimed that the speakers were turned inwards to prevent the noise from disturbing local residences.

BITTER RECORD
IT’S a matter of bitter record that even in normal times the Anjuna police have been deaf, dumb and blind when it came to complaints of noise pollution by the host of nightclubs in the area. Sunburn is not just about a little noise pollution. The drilling music is so vile that it can shatter the eardrums of anyone forced to listen to it, particularly affecting senior citizens and pet dogs, cats and the bird population in and around local homes.
The government may impose any number of restrictions on Sunburn. The entire system is so steeped in intriguing corruption that Sunburn can always ignore them. We should be clear that Sunburn is not a live music festival. There will be no international rock stars like Justin Bieber performing at the Anant-Radhika Ambani marriage celebrations. The Ambanis are reported to have been paid Rs84 crores to Justine Bieber to perform at the Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant sangeet celebration. Justin mocked his over-dressed hosts by performing in his banian and boxer shorts while guests sweated it out in their designer heavyweight attire.
Maybe Justin thought he was performing for Roopa underwear brand for which he has been appointed as a brand ambassador. The Latin American singer Rihanna, who performed at the Ambani wedding earlier for the engagement celebration in Jamnagar in Gujarat will not be seen at Sunburn. Nor will there be other pop stars like Shakira or Maradona at Sunburn.
The heroes of Sunburn are disc jockeys. The DJs are blade runners. The DJs are incredible mixers of sounds and songs. In the original avatar the DJs would run a blade on the gramophone records to create piercing sounds. Admittedly, some of the renowned DJs of the world perform at Sunburn. But it is still electronic music and electronic music is not music.

KILLER MUSIC
I HAVE personal experience of attending a Sunburn electronic dance music event when it first started out in Goa. The music was loud and the monotonous repetitive sounds soon begin to grate and sooner or later become like an unbearable drilling machine in the mind. Imagine dancing to such electronic music not for a day but three to four days non-stop? Only those high on drugs can survive the Sunburn experience. The Sunburn experience is not for the faint-hearted. It is a very heavy metal experience.
Sunburn attracts the bold and beautiful and the rich and the powerful from every part of the country. Other states like Maharashtra and Karnataka do not permit such high-decimal EDM concerts. Over 90% of the people who come to Sunburn are from out of Goa and country. The tickets don’t come cheap with the cheapest ticket costing Rs10,000 plus, plus every single day. All the food and drinks outlets at the venue charge exorbitant amounts. Only a few Goans can afford to attend the Sunburn festival.
Nobody can stop the Sunburn festival because it is a major source of kickbacks for politicians and the police. This is an open secret. Sunburn does not help the economy of Goa go anywhere. It is held between December 28 and 30 which is the peak of the peak tourist season in Goa. Fortunately, the demand of Shailendra Mehta to extend Sunburn to New Year’s Eve have been rejected. All the hotels and restaurants are House Full in the last week in December. All sections at the tourist industry have a great time during the peak of the peak. Hotel prices will go up. Taxis drivers charge as much as they want. Restaurants hike their rates.

ENOUGH ENTERTAINMENT IN GOA!
THERE is enough entertainment for Goans and for the charter and domestic tourists who come in to Goa for the Christmas and New Year festive end-of-the-year season. Sunburn puts tremendous pressure on local infrastructure. The roads in the north Goa venues like Vagator and Anjuna are very narrow. They cannot take the huge traffic generated by Sunburn. Goa does not have the manpower or the equipment to control the mega noise pollution from Sunburn.
North Goa in any case is a noisy place with nightclubs blaring loud music all through the night in the beach belt. Now the unbearable nuisance of Sunburn will be inflicted on serene, relatively calm, traditional south Goa. Unfortunately, there are politicians down south Goa who are also only obsessed by making money. Who cannot care a damn about the welfare of the people or the future of tourism in south Goa.
During the last decade, tourists both international and domestic have shifted to south Goa. The shifting of the Sunburn to south Goa will send out the wrong signals. Both charter and domestic tourists will skip Goa altogether if Sunburn is shifted to south Goa. Do not let the sun burn out south Goa.