Nightlife
Dirt Candy founders Puneet Alag and Bhupendra Singh discuss why Red Bull Unforeseen hosted at the venue will be a boost for Delhi’s nightlife scene.
Delhi, a city brimming with stories and deeply-entrenched cultural experiences throughout its storied history, has always played second fiddle to the nation's financial and nightlife capital – Mumbai.
While nightlife has sporadically thrived for specific periods in between the halls of decadent five star hotels and the hazardous lanes of Hauz Khas Village, very few spaces have managed to survive the cut-throat nature of operating a business in the nation's capital and become touchstones in the city's cultural landscape.
With artists, promoters and audiences restricted to a limited number of options, the city finds itself at a crossroads in terms of establishing itself as a key market on the international nightlife calendar. However, this crossroads provides an opportunity for entrepreneurs like Bhupendra Singh and Puneet Alag of IVVI Hospitality Private Limited. They are the husband-wife proprietors behind Dirt Candy who firmly took up the mantle on defining the city's future as a nightlife destination for audiences from around the globe.
Dirt Candy will now be one of the venues of the exclusive Red Bull Unforeseen party, which makes landfall in India for the first time in 2024. Red Bull Unforeseen is the ultimate secret party which taps into the cultural tapestry of cities from around the world, showcasing the best of the local nightlife and the people behind them.
Red Bull Unforeseen will take place at Juliet in Bengaluru on 16th June and at Dirt Candy in New Delhi on 22nd June.
We caught up with Dirt Candy's Puneet Alag to discuss the motivations behind opening the venue, her team's approach to curating nightlife experiences, and their ambitious plans for the future.
What's been your experience with the nightlife scene in Delhi?
Personally, I'm not a person who's been a part of the nightlife crowd. I've never been one to go buy a ticket and spend some money on a show for a night. However, as an entrepreneur, I felt like there was a tremendous opportunity in opening a large-capacity venue that could help bring back some prestige to the city's nightlife calendar.
What made you and Bhupinder want to start Dirt Candy?
For one, a large-capacity club venue that catered to multiple audiences didn't exist in the city. Delhi has lost a lot of prestige, both with local and international artists who cater to a market bigger than what the city's nightlife infrastructure can currently provide. In most cases, one would have to travel to Gurgaon to find an indoor space that could also host large-scale events, and that is something that we found was an issue for patrons when we conducted our market research. We wanted to be able to create a safe space for nightlife which was centrally located within the city limits and brought a higher-level of programming to the calendar.
What is the driving ethos behind Dirt Candy? What informed your decisions about architecture, space, programming and F&B?
We wanted to create a space that could cater to audiences across multiple touchpoints. We have a performance space that can hold upto a thousand people and our calendar covers multiple experiences that cater to different age groups.
We also recognised that not everybody wants to come watch a performance and didn't want to exclude them – hence the creation of the Red Room which is a completely separate space in the same property that caters to customers that want a high-end dining experience.
Our branding is that of a cocktail bar and that's reflected in the way our menu is curated. We have small-plate servings of cuisines from around the world; we try to provide a global diversity but also limit the number of items to ensure quality.
Delhi has hosted some incredible secret parties in the past. How do you think Red Bull Unforeseen will help the city's nightlife?
Red Bull is a massive brand that has played a pivotal role in nurturing and sustaining cultural movements around the world. For us, this is a perfect partnership with an internationally recognised brand that not only helps us realise our ambitions with Dirt Candy, but also brings some much needed prestige back to Delhi's nightlife calendar. The concept of the event and the curation behind it really helps create a unique experience for audiences that want to witness something new every time they go out.
What are your ambitions for the future with Dirt Candy?
We're a new space but I think in the short time that we've been open we've already managed to carve a name out for ourselves in the industry. Whether it's artists from Bollywood, international DJs or promoters looking to do something different, we're usually one of the first people they approach for a venue.
So the future for me is continuing down that path where we're able to curate experiences that satisfy this city's thirst for great nightlife – whether that be Bollywood, techno, comedy, or even classical music. Our goal is to establish Delhi as an international nightlife hotspot through our work at Dirt Candy.