also a professional team that does stage management . There ’ s a professional team that does artist liaisoning and management , once we sign a contract with an artist , we hand over to the artist team , the liaisoning team , and then they look at visas , flights , hotels , airport pickups , rehearsal pickups , sound check pick up , taking them back and from the hotel , everything is handled by a professional team . Nothing is left to chance which is why every artist that comes to VH1 Supersonic always goes back saying “ hey man what a great experience . Everyone is so professional .” The reason everybody is so professional is because we work with professionals who take a lot of pride in what they do and that bring our vision of VH1 Supersonic to life . I think that ’ s the only way to operate .
Gaurav : One thing that we did spend some time on with the sound professionals was on how to align our stages to reduce the sound bleed across multiple stages because there ’ s a point of time when all the five stages are going hammer and tongs . So how do you ensure that the person in front of a particular stage is not hearing music from the other stages ? I think we did a fantastic job with it . The sound engineers and the production team did a good job . I went on to every stage and I couldn ’ t hear any sound bleed .
Nikhil : This was a challenge for us in 2020 , because it was one of the things that we got wrong in 2020 . We had significantly higher sound bleed than what any of us were happy with . I think that was a key area of focus for this year and we got that right . Gaurav and the team were doing checks every now and then to check on the sound bleeds . When the area was empty , you could hear a minimal sound bleed but when it was full , there was absolutely none .
What ’ s in store for Vh1 SuperArcade this year ?
Nikhil : We are superstitious people . Till we have a contract signed we don ’ t say . The negotiations have been happening for a while . In fact , they happen all year around its not something that we start in January or March . It ’ s a constant process . Artist teams are getting in touch with us , we are getting in touch with them . When the magic happens and the contracts are signed , we ’ ll be ready to talk about it .
Gaurav : We will expand the franchise . You will see more of Supersonic and versions of it in the upcoming years .
What ’ s one key major learning that you two will take away from this year ?
Gaurav : I think for me , the key learning was what emanated out of the pandemic . We came out of the pandemic and went straight into planning a festival . Even though we started planning this almost a year in advance , the pandemic had not completely gone out . I think a big learning was managing international artists because each country had their own rules and regulations . India too had its own rules and regulations , movement , etc .
Nikhil : Nothing has really changed from 2013 . When I spoke about the festival being a safe space for everyone , a key learning from that was to always put your fans first . First , second , and last , it ’ s always about the fans . Going from that , we have gotta make the fan experience better each time . I think we have come a long way from where we were in 2013 , I remember we built that first festival in Goa in 21 days , start to finish . We built a festival with three stages , we ran the festival for five days and we built it in 21 days . We ’ ve come a long way from
that , but the key learning is still this – That it ’ s all about the fans . We ’ ve gotta give them a better experience .
Having said that , I think for me the learning is always , how do we get a colder drink into a fan ’ s hand faster ? I ’ m never satisfied with that . I want that drink to be colder and I want that drink in that person ’ s hand in under 60 seconds . We ’ ve always been trying to make those systems a little better to get drinks to you faster . We need to make our toilets cleaner . That ’ s always a pain point at festivals around the world . They will never be clean enough for me . There will never be enough shade , even though we increase it by 300 %, there ’ s always something that nags at the back of my head that goes “ this could ’ ve been better , that could ’ ve been better .” But I think that ’ s a good thing because I think if we keep feeling this way about this festival , it means that we ’ re very emotionally involved and connected with it . We are always going to try harder and make it better each year . Cleaner toilets and colder beer !
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