EXCLUSIVE: ELECTRIC PEACOCK ON WHY MUSIC IS CRITICAL TO SRI LANKA

“T oday globally music has become a key platform for brands to engage consumers as marketers explore new avenues to build brand loyalty. But music is also an expression of creativity and we are all about creativity," exclaimed Tasha Marikkar, Director of the Electric Peacock Festival. Tasha and her Co-Founder, Leah Bazalgette have been successfully running the Electric Peacock Festival for the past three years.

“We have been incredibly blessed,” explained Leah, “With so many great artistes taking our stage; from Grammy award winning artistes like Roger Sanchez and Basement Jaxx, to legends like Chicane and Nihal!” “We also focus on trying to give local artistes a platform to perform with international artistes; Asvajit being an incredible DJ producer that we call on every year and this year, we are extremely excited to have DJ MUKU on board as well,” chimes in Tasha.

Both of them have highlighted the significance of being able to attract such high profile artistes to perform at the Festival as an indicator of how Sri Lanka has evolved into a credible market for music as well as artistes and more importantly, as a destination for music tourism.

“25 per cent of our festival attendees have always been tourists,” states Leah, “As a result we get a lot of traction as an event across international media. We get a lot of publicity for the country, after our last festival

“We also focus on trying to give local artistes a platform to perform with international artistes.

we had a full page article about how wonderful the Electric Peacock festival and Sri Lanka is in the prestigious ‘DJ Magazine’. This publication is read by hundreds of thousands of people across the globe and is held in high esteem as it ranks the top 100 DJs in the world every year.”