Poor concert infrastructure bugs artistes, audiences amid growing popularity

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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Recent back-to-back concerts by Diljit Dosanjh, Karan Aujla, Bryan Adams, and AP Dhillon drew massive audiences, as people thronged the musical events, undeterred by harsh weather, security concerns, inadequate venue arrangements or online controversies.

But the excitement was tempered by a stark reality check by Dosanjh himself, who vowed not to perform again until India's concert infrastructure improves, sparking questions about the country's ability to host world-class events. Indians are splurging on concerts, shelling out up to ₹35,000 for top-tier tickets to experience live performances by A-listers like Coldplay and Ed Sheeran, who are set to perform in India in early 2025.

However, the country's concert infrastructure is struggling to keep pace with demand, with concerns over inadequate venues, poor sanitation, insufficient parking, crowd management issues, and subpar show production quality worrying artistes, event promoters, industry experts and frequent concert attendees. During his Dil-Luminati tour concert in Chandigarh on 14 December, Dosanjh expressed frustration over India's subpar concert infrastructure, declaring he wouldn't perform live in the country until improvements were made.

Specifically, he cited issues with the stage setup, which hindered his ability to connect with certain sections of the audience. Dosanjh later backtracked on his statement.

While the artistes and their reputation are at stake and bear the brunt of all that goes wrong, the ones who actually encounter and deal with all these issues are the promoters and event organisers. The organisers point out how India lacks the right infrastructure to organise concerts at par with the rest of the world.