TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: The battle for the electronic dance music (EDM) festival took an interesting turn with the state level event permission committee (SLEPC) recommending the grant of conditional permissions for all three events (Sunburn at Vagator, Supersonic at Candolim and Goan Beach Grind at Baga) as scheduled in December this year.
The committee under the single window system for major tourism- related entertainment events met on Wednesday and is slated to submit its report to the government within a day or two for a final decision.
Since Percept, the organiser of Sunburn was unable to comply with land requirements for its annual event at Candolim, according to sources, its last minute attempts at hosting its EDM at Vagator was accepted by the committee after it made a fresh presentation today.
In view of this, the committee has cleared the coast for Viacom 18 to host its event at Candolim. Likewise, the proposal from Bresources Entertainment agency of Nuvem legislator Mickky Pacheco to host its event at Baga has got the committee’s nod and the recommendation is to be sent to the government.
Nonetheless, all three event organisers have to fulfill several conditions based on guidelines that would be chalked out for the organisation and conduct of the event failing which the government can cancel permissions granted.
At the first instance they will have to pay all the requisite fees which include Rs 1 crore as event fee and another Rs 1 crore as security deposit along with all other fees by the departments concerned.
A top official in the Tourism Ministry said that the event organizers will have to submit detailed plans on traffic management, security arrangements, plans to tackle fire and emergency services, control of noise pollution, solid waste management and other issues and the same will be monitored to ensure thorough compliance.
A senior official in the Tourism Department said, “While the Goa Police will provide security cover, there may be three events in North Goa which would require event organizers to also make additional arrangements of engaging private security personnel as well.” These guidelines will be drawn up by the police and the Traffic Department.
According to officials, none of the three event organizers were willing to budge on the dates for their events hence the committee has decided to recommend all three events subject to fulfillment of prescribed guidelines.
“In fact the event organizers will now have to compete among themselves to woo fans,” said another source as officials claim that the event of all three EDMs happening at the same time would result in a divide of the crowd and reduce traffic congestion at one location alone.
The ‘please All’ recommendation by the SLEPC has however been questioned by Pacheco who expressed surprise over today’s development.
He said, “The police have time and again said they cannot manage two events at a time and how is it that they are recommending three?” Pacheco said adding that there seemed to be lack of coordination between the SLEPC and government. He had however not received any communiqué from the committee on conditional permissions granted for his event.
Shailendra Singh, joint MD of Percept Ltd said, “We have not received any formal intimation from the government and I would not wish to comment at the moment.”
However Viacom 18 said that it would reserve its comments until it receives a communique from the government. For Viacom 18, its EDM at Candolim will be the first event in Goa and could face stiff competition from Sunburn which, we have learnt, has already sold 11,000 tickets on-line.
SLEPC moots system review
PANJIM: The SLEPC has proposed the reviewing of the single window system for granting permission to major tourism related entertainment events recommending the identification of certain venues in the state for major events, in addition to other guidelines for grant of permissions to avoid hassles as faced this year.
A senior Tourism Department official said, “The venues would be designated as having all infrastructure and permissions would be given on a first come first served basis.”
This is the second year since the constitution of the single window system, but this year it has taken the SLEPC ~ under the single windows system more than a month to decide on grant of permissions for the EDM in north Goa as two event organizers locked horns over the venue at Candolim. Percept which has been organizing Sunburn at Candolim since 2007, ran into legal hurdle after Viacom 18 produced land agreements with property owners on certain areas previously used by Percept for its annual EDM at Candolim.
Percept has now decided to shift its venue to Vagator. Apparently this area belongs to the Communidade even though it is now one of the bigger venues in comparison to Candolim and Baga where Viacom 18 and Bresources Entertainment would be hosting their events if approved by the government.
