Anybody who loves the sound of house and electronic dance music would have sworn that Saturday night in Pune was one to cherish for a long time to come. After all, it’s not every day that the world’s most revered DJ spins the best tracks to a crowd of more than eight thousand enthusiastic fans, all of whom are clearly bewitched by note, rhythm and beat churned out on the console. High on energy, style and spirit, the Eristoff Invasion Festival with UTV Bindass featuring David Guetta was a treat, both for the eyes and ears.

Organised at the spacious Amanora Park Town in Pune, the concert gates were thrown open at three in the afternoon. With 30 lanes giving out passes, it was quite a smooth and unchaotic process. People started pouring in by 5 pm and by 7 pm, the ground was packed to full capacity. Quite predictably, it was filled with music lovers from Pune and Mumbai. Until they waited for Guetta to come on to the stage and to his console, the crowd, teeming with people from all ages, was busy trying to get its hands on the freebies being doled out — wigs, LED light glasses and all kinds of accessories.
Taking off bang on schedule, the concert’s opening acts by Dualist Inquiry and Anish Sood kept the crowd entertained, working it up for the star act. After a couple of hours of the first two acts, the Grammy Award winning French disc jockey finally made his appearance at 8 pm. With 49x23 foot LED screens spewing the words Nothing But The Beat, David’s fifth studio album, in the background, he opened the night with his popular single Sweat.
In signature concert style, David started, “What’s up Pune? Are you ready to party?” And ready to party they were. For the next two hours, the 44-year-old spun some of his favourite tracks, driving the crowd wild. With speakers thrashing out the best electronica and dance music at insanely high decibels and the LED screens spewing strong psychedelic visuals, the concert was a no-holds-barred high-energy zone. The crowd sang along each step of the way. Overwhelmed by the response and taken aback by India’s obsession with EMD, the DJ admitted quite humbly in his heavy French accent that he had no idea he was so famous in this part of the world. “I did not even know that you guys knew about my music,” he said.
The energy quotient escalated as the evening drew on and he played famous tracks like Tonight’s Gonna Be a Good Night, Club Can’t Handle Me, and Without You. Overwhelmed by the cheering he was getting, the DJ clicked a picture of the crowd as he played Memories. He then asked everyone to pull out their mobile phones and turn off all the other lights, so what one could see was merely a sea of shiny twinkling lights that fluttered in the darkness as he said, “It’s my first trip to India, but certainly not the last one.”
Guetta then left the crowd mightily impressed as he played a little piece that he said he’d composed in his hotel room just before leaving for the concert. “If it is released, I will call it Mumbai,” he said. What followed next was something no one could have imagined. The icing on the cake.
Out of nowhere, R&B singer Akon inconspicuously walked up onto the stage. Introducing his co-artist, he said, “We met by accident one night in London, and we started something really crazy. It’s changed the game for the whole world. This is the first time… we’re performing my next single for the first time on the planet.”
Akon sang his world famous track Sexy Bitch featuring Guetta. The crowd, clearly enthralled by the Chamak Chall-o singer, predictably asked him to sing the Bollywood number, but unfortunately, Akon had to leave the crowd disappointed. Before leaving the stage, however, he convinced Guetta that if he were to release the track he just played, that he’d rather call it Pune, since they were in the city at the time. Guetta’s maiden trip to Pune (He had performed in Delhi the previous day and was scheduled to perform in Bengaluru the next day) concluded with the world debut of Crank It Up, his next single featuring Akon.
The DJ kept the crowd on its feet for a while longer after Akon made his exit, before finally packing up for the day. Much to the delight of his fans, his parting words were a promise — I’ll come back soon!