Lollapalooza India 2024: India is not the ‘hardship’ market from a live entertainment perspective anymore, BookMyShow says 

Ahead of the iconic multi-genre music festival Lollapalooza India 2024 that will be held on January 27 and 28 in Mumbai, BookMyShow Live, which is the promoter and co-producer for the festival’s Indian edition along with global producers, Perry Farrell and C3 Presents, said that because of live events and festivals like these, the industry will see maximum growth in the next five years. The second edition of the festival will see the likes of Sting, Jonas Brothers, Halsey and OneRepublic as headliners.

The live entertainment experiential division of BookMyShow also revealed that 23% of the overall Lollapalooza India 2023 transactions marked the first-time engagement of users on BookMyShow for entertainment, underscoring the festival's unique allure and its ability to bring so many newcomers into the fold of the growing live entertainment landscape in India.

According to BookMyShow’s Owen Roncon, last year, live entertainment took centre stage with 13.5 million entertainment enthusiasts choosing to step out for live events on-ground. He adds that events like Lollapalooza India have put India on the global entertainment map. “In the past global artists had coined a word. They used to look at us as the hardship market but we’re not that anymore. We’re ‘the’ market that they are looking at growing and there’s been 20-30 years of work that has gone into it. The consumer has really matured and the next five years will see the maximum growth,” Owen Roncon, Chief of Business – Live Entertainment, BookMyShow said. “International artists recognise us as a legit consumer base now.”

BookMyShow data says that Indians have chosen premium live entertainment in 2023 with an impressive growth of 82% over the previous year for specially crafted international live events, accompanied by a 2.3x growth in BookMyShow Live’s consumer cohort of premium event-goers.

“Data is our bible. We look at streaming; we look at listening patterns and at audience profiles. We do add 20% of our knowledge and acumen to it but data is everything. It helps us understand how the world is changing and how we should react to it,” he said.

Going forward, BookMyShow Live will evaluate different formats, and is looking to go beyond the metro cities to offer their live events offering. “We have to get moving to more areas, more genres. Music concerts, festivals and comedy are our top three growth areas and the growth is coming on the back of great Indian talent coming in. We expect touring to increase and we have one more large festival coming up. In addition to it, we’ll look at penetrating the north-east market which has a huge untapped potential,” he adds.

The company also expects comedy and other formats like sports and gaming to grow during the year.

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