Ever since the first-ever India edition of the Chicago-based Lollapalooza festival was officially announced back in July, music festival regulars couldn't stop talking about it. The destination festival that originated in Chicago is known as a barrier-breaking, format-transcending crown jewel of musical events that has world-famous acts alongside local undiscovered, underground talent. However, the reveal of the performers for the India edition scheduled for January 28-29, 2023 at the Mahalaxmi Race Course in Mumbai, is far from impressive.
Headlining Lollapalooza 2023 are American bands Imagine Dragons and The Strokes. Electronic artist Diplo returns for a set. Other foreign names include American electronic producer ZHU, Korean-American Michelle Zauner’s pop indie band Japanese Breakfast, Canadian-origin Punjabi rapper/singer AP Dhillon American alt-pop singer Alec Benjamin, and Hong Kong rapper-singer Jackson Wang. The Indian artists include mainstream names such as Prateek Kuhad, Divine, The Yellow Diary, AsWeKeepSearching, The F16s, Kayan, Tejas, Bloodywood, Madboy/Mink among others.
When the announcement went live on November 3, the festival's Facebook and Twitter feeds were flooded with comments from disgruntled non-fans. They expected something far different.
One Twitter user was intrigued that Jackson Wang is on the list:
Many had spent anywhere between Rs. 5,999 to Rs. 7,500 for early bird tickets to the event. They proceeded to put them up for sale on the same day. Himanshu Sharma – a 22-year-old student who was planning on flying down for this event all the way from Jorhat (Assam) – sold his tickets immediately after reading the “underwhelming” line-up announcement. “Honestly, Imagine Dragons as headliners?” he says rhetorically, “If it was 2014, I would've been freaking out but this is 2022! I love The Strokes and Greta Van Fleet but I wouldn't fly all the way from Assam for them.”
Many users tweeted about the sale, starting discussion threads on their own:
Podcaster Peter K, who co-hosts heavy metal podcast Horns Up, was surprised to find many takers for his early bird tickets. “I got 12 responses in my DMs when I shared an Instagram story about wanting to sell my tickets,” he says.
Lollapalooza has always been about expanding boundaries in both the musical and geographical sense. India will be the eighth host country for this annual event, joining Chile, Brazil, Argentina, Germany, France and Sweden. However, neither desi millennials nor Zoomers are impressed with the musical expansion here. “All I wanted was one legendary international band. Music festivals out here are focused on peppy music and fancy acts. All the singing and dancing crap of the world,” says Mayank Pahuja, product consultant in a financial research company.
Quips 22-year-old Sujeesh Prabhu, a freshly minted music producer from Mumbai, “Luckily, I waited to find out who's playing, else I would have splurged on something I wouldn't bother going for. They (Lolla organisers) were catering to the SoBo audience since Day 1. Rock and metal fans should really stop expecting epic performers at festivals, including Bangalore Open Air.”
The overall sentiment is that the headliners should have been a mainstream hard rock band while the local acts aren't undergroud enough. “I had my hopes up,” says Sharma, “All over the world, Lollapalooza has brought huge mainstream headliners. There's no comparison with the level of musicians in the Chile and Argentina editions. Imagine Dragons is a very mid-level pop band. I was expecting the likes of Red Hot Chili Peppers or Green Day.”
Some social media users joked about their “poor spending choices”:
Another point of contention is that the desi acts are too safe and populist. The usual suspects you see at every fest across the country will be playing at Lolla too. A parody band fresh off a US tour, another singer-songwriter back from a US tour, the singer-girlfriend of a Bollywood star, the son of a veteran film actor... where are the underground hip-hop artists and metal bands? “See, it's a business,” says Pahuja, “They know the artists who are going to sell tickets so they are sticking to the formula of keeping indie and middle-of-the-road international bands; the same goes for the Indian acts too (pop, indie-pop and post-rock). The same old broken records Kuhad and Co. The whole fest thing is becoming a safe bet. Most of these artists will go on to play at NH7 Weekender and Magnetic Fields. The people buying tickets also don't care two hoots; they want to eat, drink, dance and have a good time. Who gives a damn about creativity and musicians who are pouring their heart and soul onstage?”
The dearth of research in finalising the list of performers at festivals is at question here, as with other such events across the country. Do festival directors have a team of talent hunters or is a large social media following the main criterion?
Peter K believes this strong reaction is a lesson for everyone. “You cannot sell tickets and then announce the line-up afterwards. This is not the case with international fests where you know who's playing from the start. This is a learning experience for other agencies planning music and culture festivals.”
