Love and pride for their native district led them to create a successful music festival in Coorg
Lavin Uthappa & Sachin Bopanna, Storm Festival
Having flourished in the events industry for 19 years, Lavin Uthappa’s stint as director of Storm Festival has beenglorious. His passion and love for his homeland propelled him to forsake a flourishing career in the corporate sector and pursue event management. Along with his brother Sachin Bopanna, Lavin created Liquidspace Entertainment four-and-a-half years ago, with the aim of promoting organic fusion sounds. “We wanted to bring the best of mainstream entertainment to Coorg and make it one of the foremost camping and destination festivals of the country. What’s better than starting from home?” quips Lavin
He has worked extensively on brand promotions, visualising, strategising and executing international concerts- all of which helped him create the Storm Festival. “Years of experience in this industry have helped me achieve near perfection in all that I do.” Added to that, he is fondly referred as ‘Annaiah’ by the people he works with, because of his affable nature. Organising an outdoor festival in a small town can be a daunting task, “It takes a lot of time, passion, hard work and monetary implications to build a festival. Since non-metros are quiet for most of the year, it is a challenge to convince authorities and locals. Added to this, the tough terrain and lack of availability of raw materials makes it harder. We have to procure them from bigger cities, which is an expensive proposition too. Finally, procuring licences and requisite permissions to run these festivals as stipulated by the law of the land will ensure smooth running of these events.”
No mountain is high enough for these spirited brothers, “Branching out to create Storm was the best decision I ever made. It would not have been possible without the support of well-wishers, family and musicians. In the end, hard work always pays.”
source: http://www.bangaloremirror.com / Bangalore Mirror / Home> Columns> Work / by Sindhuja Balaji / September 13th, 2013
