In his book\u00a0India Psychedelic: The Story of a Rocking Generation<\/a><\/em>, Sidharth Bhatia\u00a0recounts how India in the 1960s\u00a0was pushing against all odds to birth a culture of\u00a0rock<\/a> music.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n At\u00a0Shanmukhananda\u00a0Hall in Mumbai, where a band competition called Simla Beat Contest took place, he describes young Indians gathering for a show that was perilously put together. \u201cElectric guitars were almost impossible to find, and amplifiers were even rarer; enterprising musicians managed somehow with tricks that would be laughed at today, such as using a valve radio or even PA systems better suited to public meetings rather than for music. Local guitars, such as \u2018Givson\u2019 (whose name bears a close resemblance to the iconic Gibson), manufactured in\u00a0Calcutta, were available but hardly comparable to the real thing.\u00a0Very basic\u00a0drum sets were made in local workshops,\u201d Bhatia writes.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Inspired by the iconic Woodstock<\/a> festival of 1969 in the U.S., a music festival called Sneha Yatra was held on the outskirts of Mumbai in 1971. Featuring backdrops of instruments, hippie-like caricatures and typography that was downright groovy, it reflected the Flower Power-inspired aesthetic seen in the U.S. from the\u00a0Sixties\u00a0onwards. In 1978, Jazz Yatra came to the front, and later led to festivals like Jazz Utsav.\u00a0<\/p>\n Described as India\u2019s first jazz festival, Jazz Yatra was held at Rang Bhavan\u00a0with generous help from travel partners like Air India,\u00a0who covered flights,\u00a0and\u00a0support\u00a0by the American consulate\u00a0and embassy.\u00a0Through\u00a0the latter\u2019s push, jazz greats\u00a0like Sonny Rollins, Wayne Krantz, Larry\u00a0Carlton,\u00a0and Stan Getz\u00a0made their way to India.\u00a0<\/p>\n Rolling Stone India<\/em>\u00a0Contributing Editor and Jazz Yatra team member Sunil Sampat says the atmosphere at Rang Bhavan was\u00a0a sight to behold. \u201cPeople would come with their whole\u00a0family,\u00a0it would be like a picnic. One guy would come with an ice\u00a0cooler,\u00a0his driver or help would bring that heavy cooler. After a while, the cooler would be opened, drinks would flow, you could have your alcohol. Somebody brought some\u00a0samosas<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0pakodas,<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0you\u2019re\u00a0just sharing it with everyone. It was\u00a0a great way\u00a0enjoy to\u00a0jazz,\u201d Sampat recalls.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n He says it\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0matter so much if people\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0enjoy the sometimes esoteric, obscure forms of jazz\u00a0being\u00a0hosted.\u00a0Jazz Yatra went on to set a precedent for jazz festivals<\/a> in New Delhi and Kolkata. More than that, Sampat recalls that the connection between the organizer, the\u00a0artists\u00a0and the audience was\u00a0completely\u00a0different.\u00a0\u201cAll the musicians were accessible to you as an audience member. Some of them would finish their set and come sit with you in the audience to enjoy the rest of the concert,\u201d he says, noting how any barriers between the two were dismantled.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Rang Bhavan would cost about \u20b9800 rupees to rent out in the Seventies and an\u00a0additional\u00a0\u20b9200 would go into renting chairs\u00a0for a seated audience.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n By 1985, Rang Bhavan became the home of rock in India, mostly thanks to gig organizer Farhad Wadia setting up Independence Rock<\/a>. It was\u00a0largely about\u00a0giving bands a stage and giving audiences a space to watch a band live, which was often where the concert experience began and ended in its\u00a0initial\u00a0years. Later, with sponsors coming in and the venue shifting to Chitrakoot Grounds in the 2000s, there was more activity around the festival grounds, including sponsor stalls and the like.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Among bands like Pentagram<\/a>,\u00a0Agnee<\/a>, Parikrama<\/a> and more performing, metal band Brahma was active in the Nineties and 2000s, fronted by Devraj Sanyal.\u00a0Today,\u00a0he\u2019s\u00a0the\u00a0chairman\u00a0and CEO \u2013 India & South Asia of Universal Music Group and\u00a0runs\u00a0a wellness label called Vedam Records, but\u00a0there\u2019s\u00a0plenty of footage of him and his bandmates at I-Rock editions, alongside\u00a0favorites like Millennium, Parikrama and Pentagram.<\/p>\n Sanyal recalls performing at I-Rock and Great Indian Rock Festival (GIR), Rock \u2018N India and several other concerts across the country, ranging from clubs to bigger stages. \u201cPlaying these crowds was the most fun I\u2019ve ever had\u00a0being\u00a0on the other side of the music\u00a0business,\u00a0and it was always a thunderous, heart-pounding rush,\u201d he says. Bands\u00a0couldn\u2019t\u00a0have had it better, even if playing conditions were less\u00a0optimal\u00a0for them compared to the international headliners who were walking in with tech riders and demands. He recalls seeing everyone from Deep Purple<\/a> to Bon Jovi<\/a> to the Rolling Stones<\/a> to Iron Maiden <\/a>and the Scorpions<\/a>. \u201cAs fans, we felt a cacophony of pure energy, and for us diehards, it was always a maelstrom of sound and sweat. And we left feeling richer for having experienced the greats,\u201d Sanyal says.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Sampat, for his part, recounts the Rolling Stones concert at Mumbai\u2019s Brabourne Stadium in 2003 as \u201cbadly done.\u201d He says, \u201cThe concert was\u00a0done\u00a0at\u00a0a venue\u00a0near the road, so you could hear buses and taxis honking. They had to turn up the volume of the stage sound to counter that.\u201d What was rewarding, however, was the chance to meet Mick Jagger at the Cricket Club of India (CCI), where Sampat was a member. That kind of\u00a0chance\u00a0meeting and willingness to spend time with fans is now lost, Sampat laments. \u201cToday,\u00a0you\u2019re\u00a0nothing more than a number.\u00a0You\u2019re\u00a0taken for granted.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0also become more of a social event,\u201d he adds.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n By the Nineties, the Great Indian Rock festival became a traveling series across the country. On the other end of the spectrum were beach raves in Goa that birthed the Goa Trance movement and made the territory inextricably linked to electronic music. Where crowds flow, capital usually follows. And it could be argued that\u00a0that\u2019s\u00a0where the corporatization of music festivals began with companies like Percept launching their own international-focused EDM festival Sunburn in 2007. Back then, it was an attempt to\u00a0consolidate\u00a0the market and give a home for electronic music fans around the country. Promoters like Submerge had already been in action since 2003, fostering electronic music as an underground movement that was about to blow up.\u00a0Submerge co-founder\u00a0Nikhil\u00a0Chinapa, who was festival director at Sunburn,\u00a0recalls, \u201cThe early editions were a lot more about music, because they happened in the absence of Instagram-led FOMO [fear of missing out] and fans came for one of two reasons \u2014 either they knew the artists, or they knew that being part of a festival experience was something unique and not seen before in India. They had seen festivals online across the world, and they wanted to\u00a0participate\u00a0in the birth of this new form of cultural and community togetherness.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n As stage production and\u00a0lineups grew bigger\u00a0to\u00a0emulate EDM festivals overseas, promoters like Submerge and Percept got sponsorship backing in a big way, which shaped the way brands came into the music festival experience.\u00a0Back then, it also helped that artists were willing to waive their fees so that they could come to India.\u00a0\u201cWhen I brought\u00a0Above & Beyond<\/a>\u00a0to play at the first edition of\u00a0Sunburn in India, they charged me no fee and only came for the price of their flights and hotels. They wanted to experience what India was like,\u201d\u00a0Chinapa\u00a0says. Interestingly, Above & Beyond headlined the Mumbai edition of Sunburn between Dec. 19 to 21, 2025.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Chinapa\u00a0moved on from Sunburn to become a key curator at festivals like Vh1 Supersonic\u00a0and Satellite Beach Party and is now\u00a0festival director at Arunachal Pradesh\u2019s Euphony Voyage, taking place on Feb. 13 and 14, 2026\u00a0in Itanagar.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n After the likes of Sunburn, Big Chill, NH7 Weekender and others slowly came up, the idea of a music festival had also changed massively from just seeing your favorite artists on stage to a\u00a0lived experience that you could keep going back to.\u00a0Social media, according to\u00a0Chinapa, is a large driver of FOMO-anxious audiences. But\u00a0there\u2019s\u00a0another reason, too, for musical festivals finding favor. \u201cWhile experience is still important, people think or people find that culture\u00a0and\u00a0community and their tribe and being a part of that movement together is as important as experience,\u201d he says.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s\u00a0those intentions that set the tone for the music festivals that have come up around the country today. They were\u00a0largely accessible\u00a0in terms of\u00a0location, offered exclusivity when it came to top-notch artists (who may or may not have returned to India\u00a0in the decades since),\u00a0and built a brand value that has turned into legacy.\u00a0They also likely served as a compass or litmus test, becoming the events that experimented,\u00a0failed\u00a0and succeeded in their curation,\u00a0organization\u00a0and pricing\u00a0so that future festivals would navigate with a little bit of knowledge of what\u00a0has grown from a national music circuit to a\u00a0concert economy.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n![](\"https:\/\/cdn-ilegigk.nitrocdn.com\/sccIUIbmWTauRiOqCExZqNNyEmbLBkSx\/assets\/images\/optimized\/rollingstoneindia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Jazz-Yatra-news-clipping-960x645.jpg\")
![](\"https:\/\/cdn-ilegigk.nitrocdn.com\/sccIUIbmWTauRiOqCExZqNNyEmbLBkSx\/assets\/images\/optimized\/rollingstoneindia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Brahma-at-I-Rock.jpg\")
![\"I](\"https:\/\/cdn-ilegigk.nitrocdn.com\/sccIUIbmWTauRiOqCExZqNNyEmbLBkSx\/assets\/images\/optimized\/rollingstoneindia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/I-Rock-1999.jpg\")
![](\"https:\/\/cdn-ilegigk.nitrocdn.com\/sccIUIbmWTauRiOqCExZqNNyEmbLBkSx\/assets\/images\/optimized\/rollingstoneindia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Sunburn-2007.jpg\")