the Lollapalooza ’26 experience

This past week I was in Mumbai for Lollapalooza India 2026, and while the acts hadn’t excited me when I first booked the early bird ticket, I was completely blown away by the overall experience. It was also my first concert experience in a LONG time, so me feeling Amazed would be a gross understatement. I suppose it’s a feeling that I can’t quite put into words.

Also, Mumbai is my favorite city now.

Friday, Jan 23

I’d booked tickets and the hotel stay with my sister (Anks) and brother-in-law (Francis). We landed in Navi Mumbai on Friday and had booked a cab to travel to BKC (Bandra area), which took us about 1-1.5 hours. Navi Mumbai felt a tad surreal / strange to me, for reasons I still do not know.

The first thing I did after checking in to the hotel was to have Vada Pav. I did that at multiple places and the taste was pretty consistent everywhere. Magical. ✨

I was then working for the rest of the day. Lots of testing (and vibing) with my coworkers.

Afterwards, in the evening, we had gone to a local joint called Soul Fry, which was packed and we were sat outside. We had some tasty food (Dal and steamed rice in Konkan style — it was spicy), and a couple of drinks (People’s Lager). Delicious.

I kept saying, "Ahhh — that hits the spot!," after each sip of my lager — to the immense displeasure and disgust of Anks who cringed, and asked if I was a 47 year old Dad in a beer advertisement. Needless to say, I laughed. A lot.

The place also had karaoke; it had great demand and we had to wait for our chance. We sang In the End, by Linkin Park (prepping for the concert), and Francis sang R U Mine?, by Arctic Monkeys. Great fun overall!

We stayed up until 2 AM or so, and it indeed is the city that never sleeps. We even took an auto on a whim to explore the city late into the night (Francis was buzzed, and I too — a tad bit, but I was OK. I ended up babysitting him.)

We then went back to the hotel (in the same auto) and crashed. Hard.

Saturday, Jan 24 (Day 1)

There wasn’t much activity on the first day. I woke up super early and was very hungry, so I immediately got around to seeing where I could grab some food.

I wanted to experience Mumbai like a local by myself. I walked about until I found a stall that sold Puri Bhaji. It only costed 40 rupees (unlimited Puris too!) That tasted pretty great, although they were unhealthy. I then went to a McDonald's that was RIGHT nearby and grabbed myself a cup of Cappuccino.

I then strolled around randomly some more until afternoon, where I had gone back to the hotel to get ready for Lollapalooza Day 1. We all got ready, hired a cab, and headed to the venue. Oh, also we all wore wristbands that acted both like our passes and wallets — it had a QR code that could be used to add money / top-up existing funds.

We reached by 4:30 PM. In terms of the venue itself — it was huge, and was a long walk to the inside. (It was at a horse racing course.) Lots of walking. Lots of people.

It had four stages — the main / big one was called "BudX", and the other ones were "H&M", "Alternative", and "Perry's x Keep Walking". We had gone to all stages, except for the last one (which mainly played Electronic music.)

Day 1 was OK in terms of the crowds. There wasn’t much crowd, compared to the second day. The first act we saw was (1) Fujii Kaze. It was great, although none of us could understand the lyrics (there were subtitles, though.) The sensuality the man carried. We didn’t stay long though, as we didn’t feel the vibe.

We then headed to the Alternative stage, where an Indian fusion band called (2) Prithvi Presents was playing. This one, we stayed until the end of their set — it was pretty compelling. I even went up front, wading through the crowd, and took a couple of videos.

The third act was a combined one by (3) Homixide Gang / Destroy Lonely, both an hip-hop collective. The hype was REAL, and I sorta liked it. I was actually jumping about to some of the songs they played.

But — it also got dangerous as there was some rough moshing. The act even stopped their show and went back in. An emcee then came out and asked people to stop with the moshing and ensured people were safe, so the artists could get on with their show.

We didn’t stay here long either as we weren’t feeling it, and headed back instead to the Alternative stage, where we saw a band called (4) The Midnight play. The vibes were sublime here; synthpop at its finest.

After all that, MAN. The main act over at H&M was (5) YUNGBLUD. It was my first time (I had never heard of him before), and I’m a fan now. He was very very good. He also cried as he was performing some of his encore songs (Ghosts, I got emotional too). It was all very real, and was amazing. I wish I could see / experience it again. He even made a vow to visit India every year from now on!

The last act of the day was (6) Playboi Carti, over at the main stage. This also was very hype — I again jumped around a lot to the songs. I was feeling the energy, although it was SUPER loud. We didn’t stay long here either, as we weren’t vibe-matching.

Day 1 was amazing. It was a welcome surprise, and I’m happy that I discovered some great new artists.

Sunday, Jan 25 (Day 2)

This day began with us exploring a local mall in Bandra. I was surprised to see virtually NO traffic on the roads on a Sunday, I mean come on. We visited the mall first because I had wanted to buy a fanny pack. We then went to a Starbucks to grab some coffee, and visited another café called The Nutcracker, which had some great vegetarian food.

After all that, we went around sightseeing — specifically to Marine Drive, and Nariman Point, we walked around a bit until late afternoon, and then decided to go to the venue.

The second day had a HUGE crowd. We didn’t see many acts this day, as we wanted to reserve our spot for Linkin Park. The first thing Francis and I did when we got in was to grab a couple of beers. Then we all went to find a good place within the already forming crowd, and camped at around 4:30 in the afternoon. It was a long wait until 7:55, when Linkin Park was scheduled to play.

The first act playing was (1) Calum Scott — he was pretty smooth. I liked it. Not much to say otherwise.

The second act was (2) Bloodywood. I was looking forward to this, as I had heard a couple of songs by pure chance earlier last year. There was a lot of headbanging and jumping for me, and my neck and shoulders were pretty sore the next day. The band encouraged people to mosh and I was screaming NOOOO at the top of my lungs, and yet people moshed — close to us, too. There was a lot of push/pull in the sea of people around, and a person or two even got hurt.

And then, we waited for the main/headlining act (4) Linkin Park. It was a long wait. Long enough to make a few new friends while standing there, collectively killing time.

A lot of people behind me were irritated and asked me to move because they couldn’t see anything (I’m tall). My patience was already thin, and I verbally snapped back at them. Not my proudest moment, admittedly. Francis and my newly made friends stepped in, backed me, and calmed me down.

Then the countdown appeared — around the 10-minute mark. The second the crowd saw the timer, everyone completely lost it.

The band then came out and they had an AMAZING show, with lasers and a great light show. They opened with an instrumental and broke into Somewhere I Belong, and ended their whole set with Faint. I think they played about 25 or 27 songs, and I sang to almost all of them. It was surreal to see my favourite band play LIVE, right in front of me. I mean, my 13 year old self would have had his mind blown if he knew the day would come.

The day ended, with all of us taking a cab to go to a restaurant. I actually remember feeling quite low / down afterwards — Francis told me I was experiencing something called a post-concert depression. I didn’t know that was even a thing (I even looked it up now, as I was writing this post.) Oh it’s real.

After the restaurant stop, we took another cab to go to back to Marine Drive at 1 AM, and found another place called Bachelorr’s, where we had some sandwiches and ice creams. After all that, we decided to head back to the hotel. I was still feeling low and was terribly exhausted.

Day 2 was worth it. I had a sore throat / voice the next day, and was aching all over, but it was WORTH it. I would do it again. Totally.

Monday, Jan 26

I was feeling better, although still sore everywhere. It was checkout day, and I quickly got ready, packed everything, and we went to have some more last-minute Vada Pav, on our way to the airport.

I feel like I’ve already written a lot, and I don’t quite know how to summarise this, but it was an AMAZING experience, and I am already looking forward to going the next year!

👉 Oh, and my next concert: Tame Impala. Amsterdam. May 4. (Hopefully.) Not me buying a ticket, without planning travel and stay. 🙃