After the success of last year’s inaugural AVA festival, the second edition promises to be a gala affair. The lineup of speakers for this year’s festival is a testament to the fact that EDM enthusiasts are in for a treat.
Great Britain’s UK Trade and Investment in collaboration with Belfast-based Audio Visuals Arts (AVA) Festival and Generator NI will present The Exchange x AVA, a day-long conference and showcase featuring musicians and music industry professionals from Ireland and India at Khar Social in Mumbai on March 9. The Exchange x AVA is also driven by key partners and contributors such as Submerge and Bhavishyavani Sound System.
The conference will take some of the UK’s and India’s electronic industry professionals — from DJ/performers to digital marketers — and facilitate a series of panels and discussions designed to stimulate conversations like where the global electronic sector is heading and how the UK and India’s key electronic stakeholders can create new collaborations and partnerships in its development.
The conference will include a session on how to get your music, remixes and productions into the right hands and ears and will be presented by Paul Hamill, CEO of Inflyte App. Inflyte works with record labels like Diplo’s label Mad Decent and techno labels like Diynamic and Cocoon to emerging artists. Indian speakers on this panel include Arjun Sankalia, director, publishing and international music at Sony Music and Munbir Chawla, co-founder Wild City.
Sarah McBriar, who is at the helm of affairs for AVA (Audio Visual Arts) festival and conference in Belfast, will discuss what it means to build a festival from scratch and support a local scene, and will be in discussion with Nikhil Chinapa, music entrepreneur and VH1 Supersonic curator.
One of the more interesting panels at the day-long conference will be audio-visual alchemy — making your music work with picture. Presented by Oisin O’Brien of Guerrilla Shout, a creative visual ideas company based in Belfast, the panel will also include Avinash Kumar from India’s premier audio visual act BLOT! and stage designer and visuals specialist Kaycee, who runs Pixadoo Visuals out of Bangalore.
Legendary Irish DJ and techno producer Phil Kieran will hold a session on remixing and producing music with inputs from Indian speakers and electronica artists, Sandunes and Big City Harmonics.