The Sunburn music festival, which had been granted 'in principle' permission to hold its 2020 edition in Vagator, Goa, over 27-29 December, will not be going ahead, according to reports.
"[The] Goa government has decided to not allow Sunburn in Vagator," the Times of India reported, on the night of Friday, 6 November. The permission had been revoked "due to the COVID-19 pandemic" TOI noted, attributing the statement to the state's Deputy Chief Minister and Minister for Tourism Manohar Ajgaonkar.
These latest updates cap nearly a week of controversies for the EDM festival, beginning with its announcement on 1 November. Sunburn's organisers Percept Live had said that the festival would follow stringent safety protocol, including temperature checks, scanning of Aarogya Setu app status, maintaining social distancing, limiting the total number of attendees to 20 percent of the venue capacity, and mandatory wearing of face masks, among others.
Ajgaonkar said, as attributed by the Indo Asian News Agency, the EDM festival was permitted as an attempt to 'promote tourism' and tourism-related businesses like taxis, restaurants, hotels. However, after deliberate consideration, they decided to withdraw permits due to the pandemic.
However, with the state currently reporting over 2,000 active COVID-19 cases, the Sunburn announcement triggered a severe backlash, with critics questioning the need to hold the festival in the midst of a pandemic, with the risk of having it turn into a superspreader event.
Hours before the cancellation reports on Friday, the state Congress party had expressed its opposition to the festival. Party leaders protested outside the Panaji hotel where Sunburn organisers were holding a press conference.
Goa reported 200 new COVID-10 cases on 6 November. The state has borne a loss of Rs 1,000 crore in revenue from tourism since the nationwide lockdown was announced at the end of March 2020. India's live music industry's losses are estimated at Rs 3,000 crore for the first two months of the lockdown alone.
Sunburn's organisers had not yet released a statement regarding the cancellation reports at the time of publishing.
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