The world’s biggest club festival Amsterdam Dance Event in collaboration with India’s pioneer in the live events business, Percept Live hosted the former’s touring creativity platform ADE Global Sessions on April 7th to April 9th at Tote On The Turf in Mumbai.
This debut joint initiative aimed at formulating, building and sustaining the potential business prospects between India and the world, highlighted growth prospects within the rapidly evolving electronic music business. The three day conference brought to the country by Shailendra Singh, Joint Managing Director, Percept Live acted as a catalyst for collaboration, exploration and expansion of the electronic music industry in India. Spread across three days, ADE Global Sessions played host to over 50 international delegates, 30 speakers and over 100 Indian delegates. The showcase presented an exclusive and intimate program with industry meetings, market trends, strategy sessions, top-notch Q&A’s, pop-up parties and more with a special focus on the exploding electronic music markets in India and all across Asia.
The first day of ADE Global Sessions commenced with a short introduction by Shailendra Singh (Sunburn/Percept Live) & Richard Zijlma (Amsterdam Dance Event) with a keynote from India’s biggest electronic artist, Arjun Vagale who touched upon the rise of electronic music in India and the ripple effect globally.
Adding a dash of fun were DJ Sa, Me & HER, Dualist Inquiry, DJ Shaan who participated in the ADE Cook Off. Stellar performances were delivered by PerfectTiming as the day progressed, giving the global delegation a taste of the Indian independent music circuit.
Day two started off with a screening of ADE documentary Resonate followed by a serious discussion moderated by Shilpi Gupta (Red Bull Music Academy) on the dynamics of the Indian electronic music diaspora and the industry insides with the likes of Brandon Bakshi (BMI), Rahul Kukreja (Livescape Asia), Jaideep Singh (Sr VP and Head Live Viacom18), Mahesh Narayanan (Global COO Saavn), Jonathan Waller (Strikeforce 360). As the day progressed, an amazing set of discussion moderated by Saul van Stapele (ADE) on how music festivals will be in 2026 was discussed by Peter Martin (Valis). Continuing into the discussion Megan Miller (Burning Man), Artur Mendes (Boom Festival), Peter Martin (Valis), Shailendra Singh (Sunburn Festival) engaged in a lively debate on growth, opportunities, implementation and innovation strategies for the electronic music festival market development. The Tech Lab enabled fans to get professional advice from global electronic music professionals with its intimate networking session while the Networking Lounge gave fans access to Asia’s booming electronic music scene with its speed dating sesssion. The Master Class Session saw Andrew T. MacKay (Bombay Dub Orchestra/Bohemia Junction) Shaan, Lost Stories, Sartek, Joshi, Ash Roy, Ashwin Mani Sharma discussing their career in-depth.
Official Pioneer India DJ’s Tuhin Mehta and Mash gave a demo of the brand new CDJ Nexus 2 system and Rekordbox software. Day 2 came to a close with Devraj Sanyal (Universal India), Jonathan Christiansen (HTGR), Andrew T. Mackay (Bombay Dub Orchestra/Bohemia Junction), DJ Chetas, Nucleya talking about the Hollywood-Bollywood crossover, moderated by : Saul van Stapele (ADE). The discussion threw light upon the increasing influence of electronic music in the Bollywood and Hollywood movie industries, monetising electronic music and copyright acts in Hollywood and Bollywood, the international boom of music from Bollywood and syncing the two industries.
The last day kickstarted on a social note with keynote speaker Speaker: Shailendra Singh (Sunburn, Percept Live) talking about how dance music can bring social classes together and can initiate positive change and development. The session moderated by Saul van Stapele (ADE) was the highlight of the event as it opened up a brand new avenue of thought. Speakers: Ritnika Nayan (MGMH), Dev Bhatia (Unmute), Karan Singh (Percept Live), Jaideep Singh (Senior VP & Head Live – Viacom18) threw light upon the festival market in India in the Business Q&A moderated by Vijay Nair (OML). Towards the latter half of the day, subjects as monetisation and marketing of digital content saw Ashish Hemrajani (Bookmyshow), Pratiksha Roy (Twitter), Mahesh Narayanan (Saavn). Moderator: Dhruv Jagasia (Big Bad Wolf) in full swing and building and managing international careers saw Speaker: Blaise DeAngelo (general manager, OWSLA). Moderator: Saul van Stapele (ADE) take control. Tech Lab enabled fans to get real time feedback on their music by ace professionals while the Networking Lounge gave fans access to the global booming electronic music scene. The Master Class Session saw What So Not + Kill The Noise, Wiwek giving an insight in their professional journey dishing out a few good old tricks of the trade. Arjun Vagale and Kohra presented an impromptu 30 minute track live while Ankytrixx & Friends featuring Jehan Johar, Sandy Singh, Riyaaz Amlani, Vicky Ratnani, Rajeev Samant hosted a workshop titled Mind, Body, Soul & Creativity” The grand affair ended with a discussion on how India can make a difference with electronic music markets in other continents making a profit from successful initiatives planned in the booming market in India & Asia, and vice versa. The closing panel saw Speakers: Vijay Nair (OML), Manuj Agarwal (Percept Live), Karsten Ter Hoeven (Amsterdam Dance Event). Moderator: Brandon Bakshi (BMI) In a mood celebrate, all participants headed to Kitty Su for a round of drinks!
Well year one looked phenomenal, looking forward to another successful showcase of ADE Global Sessions in India next year. Till then, watch this space for more.
