Ed Sheeran, Bryan Adams, Diljit Dosanjh and more: Why 2024 was the year of the concert in India

Everyone on your social media feed seems to have been to a concert lately? If you had FOMO or the fear of missing out on these experiences, an Instagram page launched earlier this month has been offering to tag you in concert videos to make it seem like you were partaking in the live music experience, all for a small price of course, starting ₹99.  

This probably sums up how 2024 has truly been the year of concerts in India. We began with Lollapalooza in Mumbai, which had Sting, Halsey and Keane take the stage, Marshmello’s India tour, Ed Sheeran in Mumbai, Cigarettes After Sex, Alan Walker, Dua Lipa, Maroon 5, and a multi-city, extensive tour by Bryan Adams. Punjabi music stars Karan Aujla and AP Dhillon have just about finished their tours here, and everybody’s favourite Diljit Dosanjh will stage his last show of the much-hyped Dil-Luminati tour in Guwahati. There was also a host of music festivals which include the annual favourite Shillong Cherry Blossom Festival, Magnetic Fields and Sunburn. K-Pop fans rejoiced as well, with singers Bam Bam, Suho, Hyolin, BI, Eric Nam and The Rose performing in India. If this breathless list seems extensive, this is poised to grow even bigger in the coming year. 

“Everyone wants a piece of the concert pie, and wants to be part of the moment,” says Samarth, who goes by @iamstake on X (formerly twitter), and tracks live music experiences. “It has been really interesting to see how many people, especially those in smaller cities have been interested in live music experiences,” he adds.

British songwriter and singer Ed Sheeran performs at a concert in Mumbai

As someone regularly posting updates on concerts for years now, Samarth saw interest in his own content increase, with people engaging more and even being approached by credit cards to promote their offers for concert tickets. He is thrilled, he says, to see many international artistes taking risks for the Indian market. “DJ and music producer Martin Garrix will do a stadium show in Mumbai next year on Holi. A stadium show for an EDM artiste is something unexpected and special, but I expect this to be a huge hit,” he says. In 2024, EDM virtuoso Alan Walker’s WalkerWorld Tour hosted by Sunburn across 10 cities made history as the highest selling tour by a globalist artiste in India.

Karan Aujla and Vicky Kaushal onstage

Onstage collaborations, Samarth says, have been another point of excitement for concert attendees. While Ed Sheeran brought Diljit Dosanjh onstage in March, AP Dhillon made an appearance at Karan Aujla’s concert, as did Vicky Kaushal who shook a leg onstage with Karan and sang along with him. Opening acts too have become as diverse as they come, with the Delhi Indie Project, Best Kept Secret, Vidya Vox, and Black and White opening for Bryan Adams across venues. 

FOMO, spending and more

The numbers too, are telling of this boom. In its year end report, BookMyShow, which offered 30,687 live events, including concerts across the country, reported an 18% increase in live events consumption in 2024. Nearly 4.77 lakh times, gig goers opted to travel to different cities for live music concerts. With Coldplay performing in Ahmedabad, for instance, people from 500 cities booked tickets with 21% of the buyers from Mumbai, 13% from Bengaluru and 11% from Delhi. Fans are ready to spend more too; BookMyShow reported a 123% increase in fans opting for a premium experience at live events. 

Barsika, a fan who travelled from North East India to attend the Dua Lipa concert, poses for a picture in Mumbai, India

For stakeholders, there are multiple reasons for the boom. “On a macro level, the live entertainment industry is seeing a marked change in consumer behaviour for reasons ranging from FOMO, OTT fatigue and an increase in digital consumption. Promoters like us have realised there is a growth in consumer buying by atleast 30 to 40%,” says Deepak Choudhary, founder and managing director, EVA Live, the promoters behind the Bryan Adams tour. “We’re also seeing the steady growth of Indian artistes internationally, like Diljit Dosanjh and Karan Aujla, and indie musicians such as Prateek Kuhad being extremely popular here,” he explains. 

Deepak, the man responsible for bringing Bryan Adams to India for the country’s largest music tour this year by an international artiste, also says that it was a conscious decision to include cities such as Kolkata and Shillong in the tour, apart from the usual Mumbai and Delhi venues. 

“Bigger cities do have larger venues, sponsors and a lower risk, but we are seeing an increasing number of smaller cities have a growing audience. For instance, in Shillong we also received great support from the Government and in Kolkata, we effortlessly sold tickets for the Bryan Adams concert,” he says. For their upcoming Arijit Singh tour, the venues include Jaipur, Cuttack, Chandigarh and Indore and Deepak says once the announcement was out, lakhs of music lovers immediately expressed interest to buy tickets. 

Travelling within the country

While the year began with fans heading out of the country to catch Coldplay and Taylor Swift in Singapore, concert announcements featuring big names in India meant access just became a lot more easier. People travelled from across the country to see Dua Lipa perform in Mumbai, and even landed up in Shillong for Bryan Adams for the music experience and to explore the city. A true battle began across cities when Coldplay announced their tour, as people attempted to make it to one of their shows in Mumbai, and later, Ahmedabad.A surge in demand for tickets for Diljit’s shows in Chandigarh and Delhi meant that many who could not get tickets are now planning to travel to Guwahati for his last show.

“Big concert promoters such as Bookmyshow, Insider and others have built a certain comfort so more artistes are making a beeline for India. With better resources, these names work better compared to independent event managers,” says Roshan Abbas, founder, Kommune, a culture collective that works with artistes, creators, brands and other partners.  

Echoing Deepak, Roshan too empahises on how Indian musicians have been carrying their music abroad. “The concert ecosystem thrives a lot on this kind of signalling. A bulk of concert goers are also the GenZ, who are experience hunters. They are even ready to take loans to attend a concert here,” he says.  

The boom is, however, not without its concerns. Concert-goers like Samarth highlight the need for a streamlined ticketing system where prices do not see a marked increase between sales phases. “Zomato now has a feature where you can resell tickets on the same platform and this is a move in the right direction,” he says.

Complaints over infrastructure too are mounting. Traffic snarls, the availability of bathrooms, and the venues itself not being the most conducive to host an experiential event have become topics of discussion among regular concert goers. Complaints were raised of phones being stolen at recent concerts, and Diljit Dosanjh, at his concert in Chandigarh spoke onstage about the need for better concert infrastructure in India

“Most venues that host concerts are not equipped with the right sound, vantage points, and do not have enough entries or exits.  Stadiums, grounds and exhibition halls were not meant for concerts here,” Roshan points out. Venues such as Jio World Garden, or the upcoming Phase 1 project in Bengaluru conceptualising a world class concert arena, he says, are good examples of the types of venues needed for the future.

Diljit Dosanjh during his tour in India

The concert blitz in the last three months alone spanning several artistes including Dua Lipa, Bryan Adams, Diljit Dosanjh, Karan Aujla and AP Dhillon, he estimates, has generated over ₹609 crores. “This is a personal calculation and I see this definitely growing bigger. Now that the convenience of buying online has made purchase easier, the experience on all fronts — from the music to the infrastructure, has to match this,” he concludes.