Goa, India Bans Dance Music Festivals During 2016 Busy Holiday Season

Goa, India, the ancestral home of trance music and the modern home for most of electronic music in India today has passed a crippling ordinance saying that during the busy holiday season, from Dec. 15, 2016 to Jan. 15, 2017, there will be no large-scale EDM festivals.

According to the India Times, the ruling was handed down by state chief Minister Laxminkant Parsekar. This will not affect festivals occurring this year, which is important with Percept's Sunburn Goa Festival occurring from Dec. 27 to Dec. 30 and VH1 Supersonic occurring over the same four day span.

Indian officials cite security and heavy tourist influx to the region as reasons for cutting off dance music festivals during the holiday season.

"I called both the organizers (Sunburn's Percept Ltd and Supersonic's Viacom 18) and told them that this would not be tolerated," said Parsekar.

"The dates of both the events should not clash and they should be conducted before December 15 or after January 15 from the next year," Parsekar continued.

This year additional security was implemented at both Supersonic and Sunburn as a result of an alleged threat from ISIS according to Billboard. No concrete threat has been unearthed thus far, but the minister of tourism forced the two festivals to implement new measures such as adding security officers and more metal detectors in light of the threat.

The government is attempting to draw in more high value tourists who are willing to spend more money and it believes that that the traffic caused by the individuals who attend these music festivals may scare away these upscale individuals.

Governments traditionally have been skeptical of electronic music and its merits when it first arrives onto the music scene in a country, so that could contribute to this new ban by the local authorities.