THE BRIEF
Cherry Blossom Festival — Northeast India’s biggest annual cultural music festival, hosted in Shillong, Meghalaya — wanted a global headliner who could resonate with both their domestic audience and the surrounding diaspora markets. The brief came back two years in a row, on tight calendar windows and against artists already routing the region.
WHAT WE DID
2024 — Headliner: Akon
Closed the booking of Akon as the 2024 headline act. Constructed an offer compatible with the festival’s budget and the artist’s market expectation. Drafted and negotiated the performance contract — fee structure, rider compliance, marketing and brand-use terms, force-majeure language tuned for South Asian operating realities. Sequenced the date inside Akon’s surrounding tour calendar so the show was logistically and economically viable. Coordinated travel, hospitality and crew movement.
2025 — Headliner: Diplo
Returning client. Closed Diplo as the 2025 headline act on a calendar window that needed to slot inside an active North-American–Asia routing pattern. Same scope: offer, contract, routing, hospitality and crew choreography end-to-end.
OUTCOMES
- Two consecutive headline bookings closed on tight announce windows, both inside the artist’s existing routing.
- Contract terms protected the festival on the operational risks specific to the region.
- Demonstrated SROAST’s capability for global-headliner booking outside the immediate Southeast Asian footprint, and built a multi-year relationship with one of South Asia’s most ambitious independent festivals.
CREDITS
Festival: Cherry Blossom Festival · Booker / routing: SROAST Entertainment · Headliners: Akon (2024), Diplo (2025)