Music fans have been waiting at the edge of their seats in anticipation of the Lollapalooza lineup announcement since the festival’s entry into India was officially announced back in July. Well, we need not wait any longer because the roster has finally been released after days of suspense (read, torment), with American pop rock band Imagine Dragons roped in as the headliner.
The artists are set to take the stage on January 28 and 29 next year at the Mahalaxmi Race Course in Mumbai, and it looks quite promising. Along with Imagine Dragons, NYC rock band The Strokes is going to bring in the inaugural edition of the iconic music festival.
Electronic artist and ‘Lean On’ hitmaker Diplo and American rock band Greta Van Fleet are among the other acts who will play the festival in Mumbai.
The festival is promoted and co-produced by Indian ticketing platform and entertainment company BookMyShow, along with global producers Perry Farrell and C3 Presents, which is owned by Live Nation. The Mumbai leg will mark the Asia debut of Lollapalooza, which has expanded and traversed through Santiago, São Paulo and Buenos Aires in South America, and Berlin, Paris and Stockholm in Europe over the past decade.
Other international names in the lineup for Lollapalooza India—many of whom will be making their debut concert appearances in the country—include rock bands Greta Van Fleet and The Wombats; singer and Got7 member Jackson Wang; pop artists Alec Benjamin, Chelsea Cutler, Japanese Breakfast and Raveena; dream-pop group Cigarettes After Sex; and electronic music producers Apashe, Imanbek, Kasablanca, Madeon and the Grammy-nominated Zhu.
Despite the impressive list of musicians scheduled to stage performances at the fest, the audiences seemed to have mixed reactions online and mostly claimed to be underwhelmed and disappointed given the scale and hype that was generated around the debut festival (and, of course the exorbitant ticket prices quoted). Many expected bigger and better headliners and didn’t hold back while expressing their dismay through thousands of comments on Instagram.
In spite of the widespread hue and cry regarding the “lacklustre” lineup, we sure as hell are looking forward to watching the ‘Believer’ and ‘Thunder’ hitmakers perform live as headliners. We’re also certain that the show will be a banger nevertheless.
Among the Indian acts on the bill are Indo-Canadian rapper AP Dhillon, who is one of the most streamed artists on Spotify and Apple Music in India with smash viral hits like ‘Brown Munde’ and ‘Excuses’ to his name; and homegrown talents like Divine and Prateek Kuhad.
The lineup will also include rock band The Yellow Diary and metal group Bloodywood, whose album Rakshak claimed a spot in the top 100 of the Billboard Top Album Sales chart in March with the help of an international fan campaign.
The grand music festival has around 40 acts performing for over 20 hours in front of a cumulative audience of approximately 60,000 people each day. Highlighting the comeback of the live events scene following the pandemic lull, early bird tickets sold out within 36 hours, a representative from BookMyShow reported.
Phase-wise tickets for the festival will be available starting November 3, 6 AM onwards. Tickets can be purchased from lollaindia.com and BookMyShow.
