Goa govt revokes nod to Sunburn EDM fest after facing flak

Panaji: The Goa government has withdrawn the permission granted to the organisers of Sunburn electronic dance music (EDM) festival to hold the event in the state in December this year.

The move comes in the wake of criticism being faced by the BJP government in the State after it gave its nod to organise the festival amid the COVID-19 outbreak.

The Congress party had protested in the city on Friday against the decision to allow Sunburn to be organised in the State.

On Friday evening, state Tourism Minister Manohar Ajgaonkar said that the department has decided to withdraw the permission granted to the organisers of Sunburn 2020.

“The decision has been taken in view of the pandemic situation in Goa. We don’t want huge crowds to gather as it can lead to the spread of the virus,” he added.

The festival was scheduled to be held from December 27 to 29 at Vagator village in North Goa.

Percept Live, the company which organises this event, had said that they were given in-principle approval by the Tourism Department’s State-Level Program Committee (SLPC) to host the festival.

The organisers had said on Friday that they were ready to cancel the festival if the pandemic situation worsens in the State. They had also said that the event would be held by obeying all the social distancing norms.