Vinay Agarwal Takes Us Behind the Scenes of the Mammoth Production of COMIO EVC 2017

by  Shantanu Jain Industry Watch | December 20, 2017 | Feature

Enchanted Valley Carnival Comio

The 5th edition of one of India’s biggest multi-genre music festival property- Enchanted Valley Carnival kickstarted in the late Saturday afternoon on December 16, 2017 as the best of trance artists came together at the Electronic Family Stage at the NESCO Centre, in Mumbai.

The festival which saw over 17,000 people in attendance was a stellar success yet again owing to its impressive artist lineup featuring the likes of Armin Van Buuren, Marlo, Arijit Singh, Nucleya and others, and a mammoth production that brought the audiences in festive spirits from the second they entered the event venue.

In an exclusive conversation with EVENTFAQS, Vinay Agarwal - Head of Production, Comio EVC 2017 takes us behind the scenes and spills the beans of how the entire set-up of the festival was conceptualised and brought to life.

“This edition of EVC was the most challenging one yet this was the first time we were not working with an open space in Amby Valley but a completely indoor event venue in Mumbai. I remember we were a bit worried about creating a music festival experience inside a fully air-conditioned space initially, but I must say that the venue was superbly designed to perfection with a proper concert layout.”- recalls Vinay.

He adds, “The ceiling height of the stage was 12 meters and the audiences stand was 10 meters which made for a spectacular view for the setup from behind. We used over 4500 sq. ft. of LED for the festival set-up and it created for the audiences a staggering music festival experience that was probably one of the first to be executed in Mumbai.”

Speaking about the challenges of the production Vinay shares, “The biggest challenge for us was that we got access to the venue on December 12 and that too in a shared capacity as from 8 AM - 8 PM till December 15, the venue was host to another exhibition in the same space. So, we only had the window of 8 PM - 8 AM to work with. It was only on the night of December 15 when we got the complete control of the venue and could dismantle exhibition set-up to start our production.”

Vinay elaborates, “Another obstacle for us was that since the venue had massive hangers all over the ceilings, the acoustics were taking a hit. To solve the problem, we had to bring a specialist on-board who helped us in getting the acosutics right.”

Vinay proudly mentions that the entire festival set-up, staging, and production was curated in India itself. He elucidates, “The entire set design and production was conceptualized by me which was a bit tricky since we had to comprehend and come up with something that also perfectly met with the rider requirements shared by the performing artists both Indian and International. I am thankful to the entire team of partners who helped us in achieving unprecedented levels of success and making EVC 2017, the most successful edition of the property yet.”