| The news of the year for Bangaloreans is that DJ Tiesto —one of the best DJs in the world — has given the City a miss.
Instead, he is performing in Hyderabad on the same day when he was supposed to be here, on his maiden India tour. If event managers, who were pitching for Bangalore, are to be believed, the Dutch Trance DJ preferred to perform in the City because it has a crowd that understands Western music and has, in the recent past, hosted international tours like Ministry of Sound and Gatecrashers.
“The blanket ban on dancing on Excise licensed premises in the City didn’t go well with him because when he performs, people dance. We couldn’t confirm to him that his audience here will be allowed to dance because of the ban,” said Mirza of Eblitz Inc, an event management firm that was handling the Tiesto event in Bangalore, along with other partners.
“Tiesto was initially coming to India on a three-city tour, from February 15 to 17. On the first day, he was supposed to perform in Delhi. We were looking at booking him for February 16 because it’s a Saturday and we would have more people turning up for the event but unfortunately we couldn’t get him. Hyderabad guys managed to get exclusive rights of his all-India tour. He is not performing elsewhere,” he added. Ban on dancing on licensed premises is governed by the License and Controlling of the Public Entertainment Act 2005. “Though it is to be enforced by the police, it’s the Excise department that’s playing the spoilsport. It’s because they are cracking down on dancing in pubs and bars that the sponsors have pulled out,” said one of the partners.
Police say that they are not aware of Tiesto coming to the City. “We wouldn’t have stopped the show. It would have brought in so much of tourist capital into Bangalore,” said a senior police officer. Tiesto’s brand had fetched big sponsors — an international beer brand and a global mobile operator — for the Bangalore event. “We had tentatively booked three open spaces in Bangalore because Tiesto doesn’t play in indoor auditoriums. But the whole thing fell flat,” said Mirza. | .jpg)
