Guide · Thu 29 Oct 2026
Sunburn Festival 2026 in Mumbai: the December weekend, planned
Friday 18 and Saturday 19 December 2026 at Mahalaxmi Race Course, a closing party on the Sunday, and Arena shows running through to Goa on 27 December: how the Sunburn weekend is built, and how to plan yours.
December is when India's electronic music calendar stops warming up. The centre of it this year is Mumbai, where Sunburn Festival 2026 takes over Mahalaxmi Race Course for two days, Friday 18 and Saturday 19 December, and the season around it runs for a further week: a closing party in Bandra Kurla Complex on the Sunday, headline Arena shows in Bengaluru the same weekend, and a Francis Mercier run that reaches Goa on 27 December. This is the weekend, and the week after it, laid out from the listings themselves.
The festival: two days at Mahalaxmi
Sunburn's flagship edition is a Mumbai festival now: BookMyShow, the official seller, describes a landmark Mumbai debut last year and a return to Mahalaxmi Race Course in 2026. The listing gives entry from 14:00 on both Friday 18 and Saturday 19 December, an age limit of 10 and up, and tickets from ₹3,500, with the festival passes and lounge tiers above that. Mahalaxmi is as central as a Mumbai ground gets, in the Mahalaxmi district a short run from Lower Parel and Worli, which matters for the trip home at the end of each night: the local trains and the roads out are at their busiest in the hour after the headliner finishes.
The Sunday is not a day off
The weekend closes formally on Sunday 20 December with the Sunburn Festival Closing Party at MMRDA Grounds in Bandra Kurla Complex, from 16:00 to 22:00, tickets on BookMyShow from ₹3,000 in the current phase. Treat the weekend as three nights rather than two when you book the stay: the closing party is a separate ticket and a separate venue across the city, and BKC on a Sunday night is a calmer base than the racecourse side of town.
Bengaluru runs its own Sunburn weekend
The same three days play out differently in Bengaluru, where the Arena format takes the headline names one at a time. Sunburn Arena with DJ Snake plays NICE Grounds, Madavara on Friday 18 December from 16:00 to 22:00, tickets from ₹1,500. On Sunday 20 December, The Chainsmokers headline Sunburn Arena at the same grounds, same hours, early bird general admission from ₹1,500. If your December is in the south, the Bengaluru pair is a complete Sunburn weekend on its own, and the Bengaluru guide gathers the rest of that week's calendar.
Then the season stretches to Christmas
Sunburn Arena's December does not end with the festival weekend. Francis Mercier's India run threads the week before Christmas: Bengaluru on Wednesday 23 December at Cavore (our listing carries this date as expected, from the tour announcement rather than a ticketing page), Mumbai on Christmas Eve, Thursday 24 December, at the Infinity Ballroom of the Fairmont Hotel from 21:00 into the small hours, Gurugram on Christmas Day, where he headlines the 101 Experience at A DOT by GNH from 18:00, Hyderabad on Saturday 26 December at Quake Arena, Kondapur, and Goa on Sunday 27 December at RROV, Vagator, which our listing also carries as expected until its ticketing page opens. The pattern is a tour, not a series of one-offs, so a missed city is usually recoverable in the next one.
Tickets, and the one rule
Every date above is sold on BookMyShow, and that is where to buy: phases move, early birds sell out and later phases cost more, which is the argument for committing once your city is chosen. Our standing advice is in buying event tickets in India: buy from the platform the organiser names, at the price it names, and leave the resale channels alone.
Building the Mumbai weekend
Base in Mumbai for the festival itself: the hotels page searches the city's bases, and the Mumbai guide covers the rest of that weekend, which includes a Christmas programme at the NCPA on the Sunday. If the trip has a spare half day, the city's most bookable detour is on its attractions page: the Bollywood Studio Tour, a half-day inside a working film studio, booked on Klook with the card carrying the booking route. Festival first, then the city around it: that is the shape of the weekend.
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