INCEPTOR OF SUNBURN

In 2014, under his captaincy, Sunburn was ranked the 3rd largest dance music festival in the world (IMS Business Report 2014) and the largest festival in Asia.

For Shailendra, it was always more than just music festival. Sunburn rocketed from a small experiment on a Goan beach, to become the largest festival season on the planet. In Season 7 alone, Sunburn touched over 18 million lives. A much needed entertainment option for the youth of India, fans eat, sleep and breathe Sunburn. Sunburn is a lifestyle.

As fan fanaticism reached unprecedented levels, as the international EDM industry turned their attention to India, and as competition lusted after the coolest youth-connecting brand in the nation, everyone wanted to get backstage at Sunburn. But only a few had AAA access to the mayhem and madness. And only one man has created, captained and bore witness to the entire journey – the Inceptor of Sunburn, Shailendra Singh. 

He is the only Indian to be ranked in the 50 Most Powerful People in EDM (2013, inthemix), was invited to join Niles Rogers, Gorgio Moroder and other industry legends on the conference favorite Gamechangers Panel at ADE 2013, and was the first non-musician to be featured on the cover of RollingStone Magazine. With Sunburn having executed 200+ events in a year and bringing in all the world’s top Djs, Shailendra Singh is Asia's largest Music Promoter.

THE ROAD TO BECOMING ASIA'S LARGEST MUSIC PROMOTER

It all started with the Airtel Freedom Concert in 1998. India’s first ever live pop music concert witnessed performances by Shiamak Davar, Leslie Lewis and Hariharan. In 2004, the Sangeet Awards celebrated Indian music with a first-of-its kind, blowout event featuring Bollywood superstars Shah Rukh Khan/ Salman Khan/ Rani Mukerji and more.

In 2006, the immaculate execution of the Nokia New Year’s Eve (India’s first international New Year’s concet) bash can be credited to Shailendra’s eye for detail. Produced in partnership with Harvey Goldsmith, Percept stayed true to Nokia’s motto and succeeded in connecting people across the globe with scintillating performances by: Nelly Furtado/ A.R Rehman/ Shahid Kapoor/ Priyanka Chopra/ and choreographed by Shiamak Davar. 

There were 5 concerts across 5 cities - Hong Kong, Rio De Janeiro, Mumbai, Berlin, New York -  but Percept won the Gold Ex “Excellence Award for the Best International Event” for their management of the event in Mumbai.

In 2007, paying tribute to four decades of Rock and Metal in the country, Percept launched Metalfest. Brazilian heavy metal band, Sepultura performed for tens of thousands in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Shillong. Launched in 2011, Bollywood Live (now Bollyboom) was the first ever multicity Bollywood Dance Music Festival and India’s first chance to ‘consume Bollywood’. 2012 saw the launches of Lost - a music intensive, road rally/ Superstar with David Guetta - India's first DJ ranking festival/ DJ Mag India - with Shailendra Singh as Mentor. 

Another inception, Fly Music Festival, was released from the Percept stables in February of 2015. Fly is focused on the best international and domestic live bands and musicians, and the inaugural event featured British sensation, Ed Sheeran. 

CHANGING THE GAME, ONCE AGAIN

With Sunburn established as a global leader, Shailendra decided it was time to take things to the next level. His vision was to unite the world of entertainment to make a positive social difference; rebalancing the equation between commerce, creativity, and cause.

In 2015 he launched the Guestlist4Good Social Enterprise and invited the World’s #1 DJ Hardwell to perform in India, for free. Shailendra put 100,000 fans on his personal guestlist to attend the show for free and the profits were used to educate 18,200 children through Magic Bus. It was the largest attended Facebook Event ever in the history of Facebook and the start of a movement that has educated 128,200 children and entertained 290,000 fans on ground.