Attending a concert in Delhi NCR is like entering the Hunger Games\u2014one needs to make a sacrifice to emerge unscathed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Exorbitantly priced drinking water, arbitrary security measures, lack of well-maintained washrooms or, as a recent Karan Aujla concert showed, loss of phones and even physical harm. The concert scene in India is messy. It\u2019s not the performances that linger, long after you have left the venue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you think I am exaggerating, you just need to glance at social media\u2014reels and videos are already circulating where concertgoers have outlined their experience. Out of the two concerts I wanted to attend this year, one was so badly mismanaged that I couldn\u2019t even get inside. As for the other, I barely made it out unscathed. No thanks to the organisers, either\u2014just my quick thinking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Don\u2019t get upset that Diljit Dosanjh might not perform in India anymore. Instead, face the facts. From ticket mafia and cancelled liquor licenses to protests and terrible management, why would a singer want to perform? Even Bryan Adams\u2014who first sang at an Indian concert in a makeshift venue in the early \u201990s and has performed in the country six times to date\u2014thinks India\u2019s concert infrastructure needs to improve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is not enough to charge kidneys for tickets if the experience is a matter of life or death. The bare minimum is the availability of food stalls that actually have a working internet connection. And if the management can\u2019t be bothered to do anything, it can at least send out a list of extensive dos and don\u2019ts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fistfights, phones stolen
I attended a concert in Gurgaon in 2022, and nothing changed when I attended another this year at the exact same venue. Same traffic and parking crisis. Tickets were sold months ago, which means organisers had enough time to plan for the number of people attending the concert. Yet, you must prepare to hike through the roads, zig\u2013zag through traffic, and then buy overpriced water bottles to catch your breath.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Delhi is no different. At the AP Dhillon concert on 11 December, people lined up outside the venue from 4:30 pm onward. And that is appropriate behaviour, after paying hefty amounts to watch a concert on a Saturday night. But at the security gate, everyone was told to leave their powerbanks behind. Where? In personal vehicles. But those who took the metro had a place to drop off their belongings. In a can, which the organisers had no responsibility for. In desperation, many left their powerbanks in nearby bushes. No explanation was offered for that particular security measure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Inside, no mobile network was working, so unless you had cash, there was no way to buy anything. Obviously, the food was much more expensive than regular outlet prices. Congratulations, you got yourself an unplanned day of intermittent fasting!
At Karan Aujla\u2019s concert, it was as if the add\u2013on experience was to witness Delhi\u2019s rowdiness. There were fistfights in the mosh pit and several reports of stolen phones, wallets, and chains. It has become the equivalent of slippers disappearing outside places of worship in India\u2014a whole new startup idea for thieves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I attended a K\u2013Pop concert in Bhutan in 2017, which was far better organised, with absolutely no chaos. People who travelled to Bangkok this year for the Coldplay concert also had no complaints. Next time, probably save up and attend one in any neighbouring country\u2014you can make a trip out of it.
India in general, and Delhi NCR in particular, offer a terrible concert experience. I would rather wait for the reels than go back to one. In the meantime, the organisers could use some of their profits to do a basic course on how to manage a concert.
Tina Das
Courtesy: The Print.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Attending a concert in Delhi NCR is like entering the Hunger Games\u2014one needs to make a sacrifice to emerge unscathed. Exorbitantly priced drinking water, arbitrary security measures, lack of well-maintained washrooms or, as a recent Karan Aujla concert showed, loss of phones and even physical harm. The concert scene in India is messy. It\u2019s not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[395],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-463003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=463003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463003\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=463003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=463003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=463003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}