Kalaa Utsavam – Indian Festival of Arts
British DJ and producer Arthi is one of the acts performing at Dialled In’s debut showcase in Singapore.
SINGAPORE – British-based creative platform Dialled In’s debut event in Singapore will be a marathon – a nine-hour showcase that spans electronic and dance music with South Asian influences.
Best known for high-energy music events that attract diverse, inclusive audiences, the collective will feature DJ sets and live performances in its Singapore edition.
The show, which is part of Kalaa Utsavam – Indian Festival of Arts, will take place at Esplanade Annexe Studio on Nov 21.
A collaboration with Singapore interdisciplinary initiative Tropika Global, the performances bring together international South Asian diaspora artistes and local and regional creators.
The line-up includes British DJ and producer Arthi, who opened Dialled In’s first festival in 2021, and is known for set lists that span dancehall, global bass and club tracks.
Also performing is Parimal Shais, a Kerala-born producer famous for mixing South Indian film samples, traditional percussive rhythms and trap and bass beats in his music. He also made his name through his collaborations with popular Indian rapper Hanumankind.
Besides acts such as Lush Lata from India, Bhai Bhai Soundsystem from Bangladesh and Kahli from Sri Lanka, the showcase will also feature home-grown acts such as nightlife stalwart Raaj; Tashasan, who represents the local underground DJ scene; and Jhumka, a Singapore-born, London-based DJ.
In a Zoom interview from London with The Straits Times, Dialled In’s head of marketing, Mahnoor Hussain, says the audience should “come expecting the unexpected”.
“It’s going to be very electronic music focused, but across the spectrum of dance music, with a bit of South Asian flavour mixed into it,” she says. “Our crowds, in general, are always very community-led. More so than just the showcase, it’s also about the people that we meet on the dance floor at our events.”
She adds that Singapore nightlife stalwart Ramesh, who runs Tropika Global, has been instrumental in setting up Dialled In’s first Singapore outing. “Ramesh has been trying to get us over for a while. So when the opportunity came, we thought it would be perfect.
“When we go to other countries, what we really enjoy doing is connecting the local artistes from other South Asian countries to the scenes that we’re going to be in. It’s a convergence of really cool minds and connecting the dots between different scenes in South Asia and South-east Asia.”
Formed in 2021 by a collective of London creatives, including Ahadadream and Dhruva Balram, the inaugural Dialled In festival in the British capital sold out 1,000 tickets and featured acts such as Indian-Dutch DJ Jyoty, alongside American electronic dance music giant Skrillex.
Over the years, its projects have grown and expanded overseas, including co-producing Pakistan’s inaugural Boiler Room session in Karachi in 2022, and curating the first dedicated South Asian stage at Glastonbury Festival, one of the world’s biggest music festivals, in England in 2024.
Earlier in 2026 , the collective marked another milestone when it launched Dialled In Records in partnership with The Collective, an imprint within Island-EMI at Universal Music Group UK.
Mahnoor says Dialled In addresses the lack of representation for South Asians in mainstream club culture, not just for artistes, but also across the industry’s backbone, including sound engineers, event producers and creative curators.
“That, for me, is the real and probably the most significant way that we can actually enact lasting change in the industries that we operate in,” she says of back-end representation in the nightlife and dance music industry. “It ensures the change that we have in terms of representation in front of the camera is embedded into the infrastructure and stays in a more enduring and sustainable way.”
On the same day as its Singapore showcase, Dialled In is also conducting a DJ workshop in the afternoon helmed by Arthi and Ramesh. Beginners will be taught the fundamentals of deck operation, beat matching and navigating DJ software. The workshop exemplifies Dialled In’s commitment to artiste development, says Mahnoor.
“Not everybody has access to studios or people who are DJing. There’s a lot of latent creativity lying around sometimes, and when it comes to music, DJing is a really lovely entry point to be able to connect with that creative outlet within people.”
Where: Esplanade Annexe Studio, 1 Esplanade Drive When: Nov 21, 6pm to 3am Admission: $70 and $58 (concession) via Sistic ( www.sistic.com.sg or call 6348-5555)
Beginners DJ Workshop with Dialled In Where: Esplanade Annexe Studio, 1 Esplanade Drive When: Nov 21, 3pm Admission: $30 via Sistic
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