About DeepBeat
About DeepBeat Dive Festival
Not a festival. A world.
DeepBeat is the first destination festival built around scuba diving and music, fusing deep-sea exploration with dance and ocean culture — a movement where exploration becomes celebration.
- Company
- DEEP BEATS PRIVATE LIMITED
- Founders
- Manish Gupta and Ashok Kota
- First edition
- Maafushi, Maldives — 10–14 March 2027
- 2027 editions
- Maldives (Mar), Bali (Jun), Phuket (Nov)
- Capacity
- A few hundred guests per edition
- Pillars
- Dive, Discover, Dance, Conserve
Dive. Discover. Dance.
The Story
How DeepBeat started: a dive that fell short
A few years ago, our founders — Manish Gupta and Ashok Kota — took a dive trip to Netrani Island, off Murudeshwar. The water was breathtaking. Everything around it wasn't.
There was little guidance. No real community. No one helping them understand the ocean beyond the thirty minutes they spent underwater. It felt like a transaction — pay, dive, leave — when what they'd stumbled into deserved so much more.
Because somewhere in that dive, both of them fell in love. Not just with diving, but with the sea itself — the silence below the surface, the rhythm of it, the sense of being part of something larger than the dive plan.
That contrast stayed with them. The ocean had given them everything. The experience around it had given them almost nothing.
The gap they couldn't unsee
Every dive package they looked at after that sold the same thing: a dive. A tank, a guide, a checklist. Nobody was building anything around it — no community for people to learn together, share stories, understand marine conservation, or simply belong to something bigger than a single trip.
Diving deserved a culture, not just a checklist.
So they built one
Manish and Ashok created DeepBeat — a festival, and an idea, built to hold everything that first dive was missing. More than an event, it's a movement where exploration meets education, conservation, music, and human connection — all built around the ocean.
Because diving was never just about visiting the underwater world. It's about becoming part of it — learning to move with the ocean's rhythm, and leaving it better than you found it. That's why coral planting sits at the heart of every DeepBeat gathering, not as an add-on, but as a commitment.
The Founders
Who founded DeepBeat Dive Festival?
Manish Gupta
Manish is a first-generation entrepreneur, designer, and technology strategist with over two decades of experience building digital businesses. In 2003, he founded CSTech, which grew from a web development studio into a leading provider of e-commerce and marketplace solutions — including RETAXIS, helping businesses build scalable e-commerce platforms, and CALLEY, a cloud-based auto-dialler used by sales teams worldwide.
Manish brings that same builder's instinct to DeepBeat — turning a personal love for diving into a scalable, global experience.
Ashok Kota
Ashok has spent over 25 years in event management, bringing countless live experiences to life. But his real passion surfaced over a decade ago, when he earned his PADI certification in the Maldives. Diving became his doorway into the world beneath the waves — and DeepBeat is the natural fusion of his professional craft and personal obsession.
"It's more than just a dive and music experience. It's a commitment to our oceans. That's why coral planting is at the heart of our journey. Together, we'll dive, celebrate, and give back."
Ashok is also the founder of KickIn Experiences.
The Vision
More than an event. A movement.
DeepBeat builds a culture around the ocean — where exploration becomes celebration. A new kind of destination festival: immersive, premium, and purpose-led. Boutique by design, community-first, and built for longevity.
Our mission is a transformative voyage — a fusion of underwater exploration and sonic immersion, where every dive is a step deeper into a shared human and oceanic story. We don't just dive. We listen, we connect, and we become part of the ocean's heartbeat.
DeepBeat is not attended. It is accessed.
The Pillars
Dive. Discover. Dance. Conserve.
Dive
Ocean exploration
Guided dives, marine discovery, certification journeys from first breath to advanced depth.
Discover
Cultural & personal discovery
Workshops, panels, wellness rituals, and hidden worlds above and below the surface.
Dance
Community & celebration
Curated soundscapes, beach performances, and nights that move with the rhythm of the sea.
Conserve
Conservation & purpose
Reef-safe practice, clean-up drives, and impact storytelling embedded in every edition.
What Makes It Different
What makes DeepBeat different from a dive trip or a music festival?
Music festivals or dive trips — never both. DeepBeat is the first destination festival to unite scuba, sound, and lifestyle in one format. Boutique capacity where mass festivals count tens of thousands. Conservation embedded in the experience, not added on. Access-based community, not transactional ticketing.
Each dive is paired with curated soundscapes, transforming the ocean into a canvas for music. From sound-healing rituals to synchronized water performances, DeepBeat redefines what a festival can be — an awakening beneath the waves.
Built to travel, designed to grow: the Maldives, Bali and Phuket in 2027, with more destinations on the horizon. Read the science and stories behind the movement on The Dispatch.
DeepBeat Dive Festival: founders and format
- Who founded DeepBeat Dive Festival?
- DeepBeat was founded by Manish Gupta, founder of CSTech, and Ashok Kota, an event-management veteran and PADI-certified diver. The company is DEEP BEATS PRIVATE LIMITED.
- When and where is the first DeepBeat edition?
- The launch edition is Maafushi, Maldives, 10–14 March 2027. Bali (June 2027) and Phuket (November 2027) follow.
- What makes DeepBeat different from a dive trip or a music festival?
- It is both: guided dives paired with curated soundscapes, boutique capacity, conservation built into every edition and an access-based community instead of transactional ticketing.
The first descent is yours.
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