Ibiza tomorrow?

Goa’s worldwide popularity is no fluke, there are a millionplaces in the world with the same attributes, but Goa has that ‘Je ne c’estquoi’ element to it, music being a key factor in Goa becoming an internationaltourist destination. Personally, I think it’s a combination of Goa’s chilledout persona, the people and a few ‘dreamers’ with the right ethos and gumptionto materialise their vision.

Right from its hippie psychedelic past is the 70s and 80s tothe massive trance culture which many say was born in Goa which has a genre ofmusic named after it (Goa Trance) and now home to Asia’s largest music festivalSUNBURN, which draws global superstar DJs and the ‘Electronic Dance Music’(EDM) elite, this tiny state has always been competing at the fore of musicculture worldwide. 

Unfortunately Goa is plagued with that one evil that seemsso hard to defeat: corruption! Had we not had this monster let loose on us, Ihave no doubt that Goa would be the Ibiza of Asia. The tiny Balearic Island hadbeen going strong for decades growing from strength to strength as the globallydominant destination for music and nightlife. Most people would think that isnot what they want for their state / city / town however it is all aboutmanagement in my eyes, Ibiza is seasonal, just like us, running from May –September every year. The rest of the year the island has practically nonightlife at all. Ibiza is also an UNESCO world heritage site. Sound familiar?The Spanish government knew the potential of developing Ibiza into a nightlifeindustry hub in itself and the key things to take away from this are nocorruption, very well managed nightlife and a long term plan with the biggerpicture in mind. 

Currently Goa stands firmly with its musical routes; livemusic thriving as always with that special breed of Goan musicians continuingto flow and DJs sprouting from every corner as the popularity of DJsskyrockets. Being the ‘Party capital of India’ One would imagine a fantasticnightlife scene, with great platforms and plenty of opportunity for all.

Sadly, it is the opposite that seems true. For the mostpart, you can count the good nightlife venues in Goa on one hand! Several newbars and clubs open every season but hardly any last. At one point Goa hadthree super clubs (my idea of a super club is a one that draws over 5000 peoplea week and runs more than 5 years consecutively).

Ideally, Goa should have 10 of these said clubs, therebycementing its status as a Party Capital. But as with the music industry, whichconstantly evolves, so does the nightlife world. As we are in a constant stateof flux am sure the negative or low period, if you will, shall pass and lead toanother super spell. We will have another world class era to mirror the hippieculture in the 70s or the trance culture in the 90s, let just hope we do itbetter this time around.

There is no reason that by 2020 we cannot turn Goa into aglobal competitor for nightlife, we even have a successfully proven blueprint(the Ibiza plan) to follow! As long as we have a corruption free government,the right type of support, a better mindset with everyone seeing the bigger pictureand a few great minds for good measure, the sky is the limit!

In his short time in the music production world, DJ AneeshGera has signed record deals with major record companies such as Warner MusicUK / Erick Morillo’s Subliminal Records / Whartone Records / Weekend Millionaires,and has worked with the likes of Grammy award winner Ashanti / EMI UK /Ministry Of Sound / Global Underground / MTV/ VH1 / FTV / Gatecrasher tomention a few. A local lad at heart, almost all of Aneesh’s work has beenproduced in Goa before being showcased across the world.