Great Indian Octoberfest marks 10 years of good times

The weekend of October 17 to 19 saw the 10th edition of the Great Indian Octoberfest take place in Bangalore. In a bid to scale up the excitement around the annual Kingfisher Premium sponsored event, metal heads and contemporary Indian music enthusiasts were treated to acts by The Ocean Collective, Apache Indian, Lucky Ali, Benny Dayal, The Raghu Dixit Project and Manganiyar Seduction.

The unlimited flow of of the brand’s signature beer was accompanied this year by stand-up comedy, karaoke, song writing as well as gaming and entertainment modules. The event is organized each year in partnership with Common Colours Entertainment.

“This is irrefutably India’s biggest beer and music festival with performances by bands and artists from across the globe. It is not restricted to the youth, but is a family destination with features such as flea markets, engaging games, food stalls and more,” Vilas GV, Managing Director, Common Colors Entertainment said.

Since 2005 when the Great Indian Octoberfest was launched, numbers have dwindled. From 60,000 to 70,000 in the initial years, footfall last year reduced to about 25,000. However, if it was about providing Octoberfest enthusiasts an experience of a lifetime, then the breweries major has strategically kept ticket prices higher in the last few years, even changing venues to ensure a more controlled event that is still big on fun and good times. “This year we got an enclosed space. We could officially go on till 1am if we needed to at EZone Club. Considering the long weekend and holidays, some of the usual crowd from the North East and residents of Central Bangalore may have missed it this year, but there seems to have been a good turnout from IT folk and younger people living in the area.

“There was a mela feel to it in the initial years, because of where we used to hold the events earlier. But a smaller event helps us maintain a level of quality,” explains Samar Singh Sheikhawat, Senior Vice-President (Marketing), United Breweries Limited.

When the Great Indian Octoberfest kicked off 10 years ago, there weren’t too many beer and music festivals vying for attention. The competition is now more defined. So while the company has sought in recent years to attempt the event in other cities, a smaller version of the programme it organized in Hyderabad for the last 3 years, showed that the so-called build-up events can attract attention to the big Bangalore bash.

“The Great Indian Octoberfest is not just sponsored by us. We actually run the entire event and we take care of every detail. So for this reason, we really want to focus on making the Bangalore edition a destination event each year, because people do tend to travel from Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Coimbatore and other places for it,” Sheikhawat shares.

On the occasion, a first of its kind crowd-sourced limited edition draught beer can was launched by Kingfisher Premium. The Great Indian Octoberfest this year drew between 18,000-20,000 people.