Past couple of years have been more than happening for India’s live music space and the organisers and industry insiders are not ticking them off as a one-off instance. There have been global guests galore; from Lionel Messi to Coldplay, they all came, we saw and while some were celebrated, others courted. But amidst all of this, it is the live tourism that India solidified its equation with.
News Arena Network - Chandigarh - UPDATED: January 11, 2026, 01:27 PM - 2 min read
Diljit Dosanjh joins Ed Sheeran on stage during his Mumbai concert.
India always had the crowds, but now it seems to have the audience too. The one that artistes, performers, musicians, sports stars are increasingly finding hard to pass. Following his 2024 Mumbai concert, Ed Sheeran was back in less than a year, performing to fans in Chennai, Shillong, Hyderabad, Pune, Bengaluru and Delhi NCR. While Canadian music icon Bryan Adams returned to India for the sixth time in 2024 on his most extensive India tour yet, Guns N' Roses returned to India after 13 years, making Mumbai their sole Indian stop on their 2025 world tour. As did Enrique Iglesias, who also returned to India after 13 years with a sold-out show in Mumbai.
Guns N' Roses returned to India after 13 years.
Elaborating on India slowly emerging as a pitstop on the global music calendar, the Spanish singer said, “It was bound to happen.” Similar sentiment was echoed by Backstreet Boys’ fans tuning into the millennial nostalgia when the all-boy band returned to India after 13 years during their DNA World Tour in 2023.
Past couple of years have been more than happening for India’s live music space, and the organisers and industry insiders are not ticking them off as a one-off instance. There have been global guests galore; from Lionel Messi to Coldplay, they all came, we saw and while some were celebrated, others courted. But amidst all of this, it is the live tourism that India solidified its equation with. As per a report by online booking forum BookMyShow, India’s concert sector increased by 17 per cent with as many as 34,000 live events being held in the past 12 months. Quite consistent with 2024’s numbers when reportedly 30,000 plus events took place spanning 319 cities.
2025: The mic drop year?
The Irish band Westlife debuted in India with The Wild Dreams Tour in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore in 2023, as did the multi-genre music festival Lollapalooza with a line-up boasting of 40 Indian and international acts. While Green Day wrapped up its successful debut gig in 2025, as a part of the Lollapalooza festival.
The year 2024 saw the country host biggest concerts for Ed Sheeran, Deep Purple, Post Malone, Diljit Dosanjh, besides Maroon 5 by dishing out huge amounts of money for tickets that sold out in a short span of time. A far cry from a few decades ago, when concerts were few and far between and global artistes always assumed the well-heeled Indian would get on the flights to catch the action. A study conducted by Bank of Baroda in December 2024 titled “A Concert-ed Push for the Economy” estimated India’s emerging economy around live music and entertainment events. It states that the live music economy offers, “a potential of Rs 6000-8000 crore spending spree, if explored further in the coming days.”
Although India did not get to make history, it definitely upped its own record of hosting the largest ticketed concert in India ever. British band Coldplay performed to 1,34,000 people in attendance live in Ahmedabad in 2025.
India: A lucrative market?
The numbers back the claims and the economics backs the numbers. The live entertainment vertical is brimming with sportspersons, comedians, bands, local artistes… just the perfect mix and platform for music festivals and solo concerts.
Linkin Park is set to return to India in 2026.
While India may not yet feature in global musical pilgrimages like Coachella or Glastonbury, but its music momentum is predicted to continue, with a line-up comprising Calvin Harris’ long-awaited India debut to Linkin Park’s thunderous return all slated for 2026.
Def Leppard is slated for a three-city tour in March.
Moving on, Def Leppard is slated for a three-city tour in March and The Lumineers in February.
The once disorganised fun gatherings, assorted artistes at college festivals have given way to far more monetised ecosystems of live events. The infrastructural glitches remain and if the live concert economy needs to be tapped to its full potential, they need to be removed.
During one of his shows in Chandigarh as a part of the Dilluminati tour, Diljit Dosanjh rued about the lack of concert infrastructure in the nation. “Ideally, I would like to perform with an audience all around me. Will not do a show in India till the infrastructure is in place,” he said to mixed reactions on social media.
A very similar sentiment was echoed by Bryan Adams in 2024 during his sixth and most extensive tour to India yet. While laughing over how a cow once wandered into the venue during soundcheck, the Canadian singer opined that a few improvements were in order, including streamlined logistics that need to be provided by the organisers and better access to tickets. While the singer initiated the much-needed tap on the shoulder of the authorities, the sheer numbers and revenue can give the much-needed push for implementation.
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