India’s youth are turning concerts into an economy. The money is following

Tanvi Shirgaonkar is counting down to Jan. 24, erstwhile she volition yet get to spot the Japanese creator Fujii Kaze, champion known for the opus "Shinunoga E-Wa," execute successful Mumbai astatine Lollapalooza India.

The 29-year-old banking nonrecreational said the amusement volition beryllium the archetypal of galore concerts and unrecorded events she plans to "experience" this year. An avid instrumentality of South Korean popular radical BTS, Shirgaonkar attends a unrecorded lawsuit astir each 2 months, mostly successful Mumbai, and travels overseas astatine slightest erstwhile a twelvemonth to spot her favourite artists perform.

"Live amusement offers an acquisition of corporate effervescence and it's large for societal media clout," the millennial told CNBC.

Shirgaonkar is among a increasing people of young Indians, whose rising disposable incomes are fueling a roar successful the country's unrecorded amusement industry.

Between 2024 and 2030, India volition person the highest summation successful working-age colonisation globally, with implicit 100 cardinal radical expected to beryllium added, according to a April 2025 study by Bain & Company.

India's working-age population, defined arsenic those aged 15 to 59, presently accounts for 64.2% of the full colonisation and is expected to remain adjacent 65% implicit the adjacent decade, according to authorities data.

Income per capita is besides projected to turn the fastest among the apical 5 emerging markets, including China, Brazil, Mexico, and Russia.

That demographic displacement is supporting stronger request for unrecorded entertainment.

Companies, including Eternal, which operates the unrecorded events level District, and fashionable online ticketing level BookMyShow, are among those betting connected the trend.

India's unrecorded amusement assemblage grew by 17% past year, according to a study by BookMyShow. In 2025 alone, India hosted 34,086 unrecorded events, spanning concerts, theatre shows and drama shows.

Several ample planetary tours helped thrust the surge. These included Coldplay's Music of the Spheres circuit successful Ahmedabad and Travis Scott's Circus Maximus tour, which concluded successful India with shows successful New Delhi and Mumbai.

"Seventy percent of the unrecorded lawsuit attendees are nether 35 years of property and 52% are nether 30," said Raghav Anand, spouse and person for digital, media and convergence astatine EY Parthenon, a consultancy.

Anand said the Coldplay concerts marked a turning constituent for the assemblage successful India, demonstrating the standard of request and the country's quality to big planetary productions.

"The amplification of the [Coldplay] lawsuit won implicit a immense fig of radical successful the experiences bracket, said Anand.

International artists are progressively adding multiple Indian cities to their circuit schedules, aided by digital platforms that marque their work more accessible to instrumentality bases crossed the country.

A cardinal operator of the surge successful unrecorded events is the increasing fig of affluent households, which are giving consumers much disposable income to walk connected experiences, manufacture experts said.

"Once you are affluent, it is astir caller experiences", said Anand.

Naman Pugalia, Chief Business Officer astatine BookMyShow, described the emergence successful unrecorded events as a "real renaissance," driven by audiences placing greater worth connected however they walk their leisure time.

That displacement is reflected successful increasing request for premium offerings. According to the BookMyShow report, 2025 saw a doubling of footfall for premium live-event experiences, including VIP pits, viewing decks and enhanced hospitality zones.

The displacement is not confined to large metropolitan areas. Smaller cities are seeing accelerated growth, which Pugalia attributed to the progressively fluid quality of fandom crossed the country.

"Fandom is specified a almighty unit that it knows truly nary definitions of tiers oregon metros, non-metro," helium said, noting that request is nary longer constricted to accepted taste hubs.

Live amusement footfalls roseate 213% successful Shillong, 188% successful Guwahati and 94% successful Nashik successful 2025, according to BookMyShow.

India aims to beryllium among the world's apical 5 unrecorded amusement destinations by 2030, according to a authorities imaginativeness insubstantial released successful May past year.

The sector's accelerated maturation is spilling into different parts of the economy. Coldplay's Ahmedabad concerts unsocial generated 6.41 cardinal rupees ($70.5 million) successful economical worth crossed hospitality, retail, transport and tourism, according to a study by EY successful May past year.

To support gait with demand, organizers and ticketing platforms are investing successful larger venues, improved information measures and much businesslike assemblage management.

Still, infrastructure remains a constraint. India has less than 10 purpose-built performance venues susceptible of hosting audiences of much than 10,000 successful large cities, and astir nary successful smaller municipality centers, according to the authorities achromatic paper.

"The anticipation has gone up", Anand said, citing the request for smoother introduction and exit, amended facilities and higher wide accumulation standards.

Coldplay's circuit successful India, successful particular, marked "a genuine turning point" for India's unrecorded amusement manufacture successful 2025, Anand said, helping found Ahmedabad arsenic a viable performance destination.

Looking ahead, helium said the manufacture is approaching an inflection point. "2026 [is going] to beryllium a breakout year," Anand said, arsenic unrecorded amusement takes a much cardinal relation successful India's user economy.