As a property that has grown consistently over a span of five years, the Sunburn brand had expanded across business verticals. Along with a roll out of major merchandizing plans, Sunburn aims to re-enforce its positioning in the lifestyle space with cafés, bars and clubs across key metros in India. For this year's festival, Sunburn maintained its long-term association with Book My Show, the ticketing partner for the past five years; along with tie-ups with Red Bull, Absolut, MTV, Vh1 and Party Hard Drivers. In keeping with its expansion in size and stature, they also partnered with YouTube/Google, 7UP, Colgate Plax, Budweiser, Mint-O GOL/ITC and Panasonic.

The press conference kicking off the event saw the unveiling of the artist line-up and the seven stages along with the concept behind them. The different stages included the Illa with the funk caterpillar; Muah with the electric frog; Groovadelic with the unique experimental sounds; and Cubezoid with 4D mapping technology, brought to India for the first time by Dark Force, an international company who have given their technology for the artists including Tiesto, Armin van Buuren and more.

It also saw the launch of the Lucera-Sunburn Trophy, which was crafted by Lucera, Gitanjali's lifestyle retail arm, in elegant Swarovski Crystal elements. This trophy was a stylised rendition of the ‘Circle of Life', with the Sunburn logo resting at the core of the Circle, reflecting freshness, vibrancy, youthfulness and vigour. Sunburn also announced the launch of the Sunburn official anthem, a song that reflects the ultimate lifestyle vibe of the festival.

Apart from the trademark Sunburn music, the finale day saw unique activities like the ‘Get Hitched' contest, wherein lucky couple Rohan Argekar and Chandani Singh got to the chance to exchange vows amidst the Sunburn vibe in front of thousands of people. In addition to that, the limited edition Sunburn Chopper bike, which was built from scratch at the venue by a three-member Vardenchi team over the course of the festival, was completed and showcased. Sunburn also organised the ‘Leave no Trace' initiative, in partnership with NGO United, as a step towards being more environmentally responsible. ‘Leave no Trace' was aimed to cleaning up the venue and leaving it just as they found it. As part of this initiative, Sunburn also had a ‘Lights Out' moment every evening, where all Sunburn fans were united in the cause of electricity conservation.

This year, Sunburn also engaged its consumers on the digital medium, wherein it took its brand association to the online platform. This platform featured ‘Spin God', a contest in association with Lenovo for upcoming DJs to showcase their mixing talents using the unique Lenovo DJ Star application software; and the ‘Capture your Sunburn'T Moment contest, in association with Canon, which encouraged fans to post their memorable moments at a celebration anywhere in the world that made them feel Sunburn'T, for gifts from Canon and Sunburn.

The venue layout this year was over twice the size as compared to last year, with various safety, security and CSR measures including extensive parking and traffic- control arrangements, managed with dedicated support from the Goa traffic police; women-specific facilities like ladies-only bars, for the first time; a team of 162 medical professionals on call, with a tie-up with Vintage Hospital for medical assistance; and extensive food waste management initiatives.

Percept is also looking at taking the Sunburn experience to global destinations like Bali, Sri Lanka and Dubai. Commenting on the festival, Shailendra Singh, Joint Managing Director, Percept Ltd. said: "We were very thrilled to once again give the Sunburn family the ultimate lifestyle experience, with the best EDM music in the world. It is a matter of great pride for us to host these top artists, and give the world the Sunburn experience. We are the face of electronic dance music in Asia, as it completely understands the vibe of the electronic dance music scene. We have many big plans for Sunburn next year, and all fans can be assured of it exceeding their expectation with each year."