Sunburn Festival

Sunburn Festival is a commercial electronic dance music festival held in India. It was started by entrepreneur Shailendra Singh  of Percept Ltd.

Spanning over three to five days, the festival has multiple stages with artists playing simultaneously. It was held annually in Vagator, Goa from 2007 to 2015, and shifted to Pune, Maharashtra in 2016. In 2019, the festival returned to Vagator, Goa.

According to a 2014 International Music Summit report, Sunburn was "as big as Tomorrowland and Ultra". It was ranked by CNN in 2009 as one of the Top 10 Festivals in the world.

In 2011, Percept Ltd launched the Sunburn Arena, featuring Avicii, at the Turf Club in Mumbai. In 2012, Percept launched Sunburn City Festival, Sunburn Campus and Sunburn Reload, as well as their first international festival, Sunburn Colombo. Over the years Sunburn has expanded internationally and has included many well known DJs, including Swedish House Mafia, Hardwell, David Guetta, Axwell, Dimitri Vegas and Like Mike, Paul Van Dyk, Marshmello, Chainsmokers, Afrojack, Pete Tong, Tiesto, Armin van Buren, DeadMau5, Carl Cox, DJ Snake, Skazi.

History
Electronic music parties and similar festivals have been held in Goa, with the late 1980s seeing the start of free parties, events that included DJs, art, crafts and food stalls. This continued through 1990s to early 2000s at beaches such as Vagator Beach, Anjuna beach and Arambol beach.

Sunburn Goa 2007
In 2007, Shailendra Singh organized the first Sunburn as an international dance music festival. It took place on 28 to 29 December at Candolim Beach, Goa. First year performers included Carl Cox, Above & Beyond and Axwell as headline acts. Held on two stages, with DJs playing simultaneously, other acts included John 00 Fleming, Pete Gooding, DJ Pearl, Jalebee Cartel, Super 8 & Tab. The festival was hosted by Nikhil Chinapa and Rohit Barker.

Sunburn Goa 2008
Sunburn Goa 2008 was themed Electric Circus and was held on two main stages: one for Trance acts and one for House music. Having tied up with Defected Records in 2008, the label brought house DJs Simon Dunmore, Shapeshifters, Copyright and percussionist Shovel playing. Headlining the festival were GMS, Gareth Emery and John 00 Fleming. The acts were Digital Blonde, Roger Shah, DJ Pearl, Brute Force, Nawed Khan, Vachan Chinnappa, Jalebee Cartel, Sanjay Dutta, and Ma Faiza. The event took place from 27 to 29 December at Candolim Beach Goa.

Sunburn Goa 2009
Sunburn brought Armin Van Buuren, who headlined the festival along with Latin House DJs Roger Sanchez and John 00 Fleming. Sunburn's line-up also included DJs Sultan and Sander Van Doorn. Acts included Jalebee Cartel, DJ Pearl, Ma Faiza, Nawed Khan and Designer Hippies. The festival was hosted by Nikhil Chinapa and Rohit Barker.

Sunburn Goa 2010
Sunburn Goa 2010 took place on 27 to 29 December at Candolim Beach. Sunburn passes went live on 5 November with the early bird passes and pre-booking sale passes being sold out in 22 minutes. The headliners of the 2010 festival were Paul Van Dyk, Ferry Corsten and Axwell along with Sultan & Ned Shepard with Nadia Ali, Richard Durand, GMS, Pete Gooding, Aly & Fila and DJs Pearl, Ma Faiza, Anish Sood and Sanjay Dutta.

For the 2010 festival, Percept ran a "Sunburn Anthem Contest" for potential audio and visual producers, with participants in the visual category.

Sunburn Goa 2011
Sunburn Goa 2011 was held on 27 to 29 December at Candolim Beach. The main attraction was Above & Beyond, Axwell, Infected Mushroom, Spartaque.

Sunburn Goa 2012
Sunburn Festival 2012 was held in Candolim Beach from 27 to 29 December. The headlining acts were by Sander Van Doorn, BT, Fedde Le Grand, W&W, Paul van Dyk, Roger Sanchez.

Sunburn Goa 2013
The 7th Edition of Sunburn took place in Vagator. This event had 7 stages and around 120 artists across 200 hours. Headline DJs were Afrojack, Axwell, Pete Tong, Ummet Ozcan.

Sunburn Goa 2014
The 8th edition took place in Vagator on 27 to 30 December 2014. Known artists included DJs like Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, Knife Party, Sander van Doorn, Sasha, Krewella, Baauer, Danny Avila, Head Hunterz, Deniz Koyu, Dubvision, Paul Oakenfold, Matthew Koma, MAKJ, Michael and Tarzan Woods.

Sunburn Goa 2015
The 9th edition was a 4 day event at Vagator, Goa. On 20 November 2015 Sunburn Goa's international ticketing partner, Viagogo, announced that the festival has become one of the largest international music festivals in Asia, The artist lineup would have 120 artists, including Sam Feldt, KYGO, Seth Troxler, Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, Martin Garrix, DJ SMITH, Kshmr, David Guetta, Dyro, Felix Jaehn, Zaeden and Art Department.

Sunburn Pune 2016
The 10th Sunburn festival happened in Kesanand Hills, Pune, Maharashtra from 28 December to 31 December. The festival was headlined by Armin Van Buerren, Axwell & Ingrosso, Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, Afrojack and Kshmr.

Sunburn Pune 2017
11th edition of Sunburn Festival took place in Oxford Golf resort, Pune, Maharashtra. The lineup for its 11th edition was KSHMR, Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, DJ Snake, Martin Garrix, Afrojack, Clean Bandit. Martin Garrix closed the Sunburn Festival 2017.

Sunburn Goa 2022
16th edition of the Sunburn Festival took place in Vagator, Goa in December from December 28 to 30. Sunburn Goa 2022.

Sunburn Goa 2023
17th edition of the Sunburn Festival took place in Vagator, Goa in December. The lineup for its 17th edition wasthe 2023 lineup spans across drum and bass, trap, house, electronic, trance, hardstyle, and techno, featuring artists such as Bassjackers, Korolova, Indo Warehouse, John Newman, Sander van Doorn, Vonai, Glowal, and Kas:st.

Sunburn concerts in colleges
Multiple colleges across the country have hosted music festivals associated with Sunburn. These events are often part of the college's annual festivals, usually called Sunburn Campus.

Colleges that have hosted Sunburn include BITS Pilani Goa Campus, NIT Calicut, AIIMS Delhi, Thakur College of Engineering & Technology- Mumbai, BITS Pilani Campus, LNMIIT, VNIT Nagpur, DCSMAT, NIT Trichy, IIIT-Bhubaneswar, IIM Kashipur, IIT Indore, IIT Kanpur and more.