The reality of Dhaka's indoor concerts

If you missed out on the “Let's Vibe Dhaka with Anuv Jain” concert held last Thursday, June 01, you missed an event filled with electrifying performances and significant audience backlash. The concert was held at ICCB Hall 4, Dhaka drawing thousands of fans eager to witness the highly anticipated artistes in the pop music industry.

The line-up consisted of Xefer, Pritom Hasan, Tahsan, and Anuv Jain who all performed respectively wherein the key performer was Anuv Jain, a 28-year-old Indian singer-songwriter and best known through his songs which mostly deal with feelings of love and heartache such as 'Baarishein', 'Alaag Asmain' and 'Ocean'. He quickly rose to prominence during the recent pandemic and his soothing voice and accompanying guitar also connected him with fans worldwide.

After the registration form was released, the hype for the concert was indeed shown as tickets were sold out in a few days. On the day of the concert, gates opened at 5 pm as fans flocked in swarms to watch their favourite artistes with excitement. The show started with a bang as Xefer took the stage and performed her hit song 'Jhumka' alongside an unexpected special guest for a surprise performance whose songs also took Dhaka by storm back in 2019. Mohon Sharif who was invited by her on stage had performed his most popular song 'Jontrona' in front of the crowd.

Even though fans were excited to see the duo and especially Mohon Sharif in a live concert after ages, unfortunately, there seemed to be occasional problems with the sound system.

However, that was quickly overlooked when the next iconic performer, Pritom Hasan took to the stage in a fashionable manner and delivered the pizzazz, bass, and an utterly energising performance of his hit songs 'Bhenge Porona', 'Khoka', '700 taka', 'Local Bus' and Coke Studio's 'Deora' where the audience witnessed the original performers of the song including Armeen Musa and the Ghaashphoring Choir. Tahsan also appeared to take everyone down a trip to memory lane with his songs 'Alo', 'Prematal', 'Irsha' and 'Obhimani'.

Afterwards, everyone had to wait for almost an hour before the magical moment finally started when the young Anuv Jain graced the audience with his presence and humbly introduced himself as "a guy with just a guitar" and later enticed the young crowd with fan favourites such as Mishri, Alaag Asmain, "Meri Baaton Mein Tuin", "Risha", and "Barishein" from which he performed his song 'Baarishein' twice as fans screamed for him to play his most popular song once more.

Officially, it is said that the convention hall has a spacing capacity of 6,000 individuals but on the day of the concert, mismanagement happened on all sides, especially from the organisers to the volunteers and the crowd. As seen from this concert, there is a huge demand for international artistes within the local concert scenarios but to the point where this demand needs to be accommodated reasonably. It was clear amongst the ticket holders and organisers that more people had entered the venue than those who originally bought the tickets and the fact that the air conditioning had stopped working also meant a disaster for fans who eagerly waited all day within the venue.

Another unreasonable restriction was that this wouldn't have been as big of an issue if water bottles were allowed inside the venue. Even though there were plenty of food stalls, all of them had run out of bottled water within a few hours. Fans also suffered with no ventilation inside and after backup generators had failed. There have also been accounts of many people allegedly fainting during the concert from dehydration.

Amidst the heavy security restrictions which involved fans having to bring photo IDs and tickets, many individuals were not even checked for tickets as anyone with a concert wristband was granted access.

Scammers also experienced a full bloom for their business season as many tickets were photocopied and duplicated which was then sold to concert-goers. At the same time, people were seen to be trading tickets for money illicitly in the most clandestine manner. Even after all the protocols and canine units were strategically placed outside, people were smoking inside the heavily congested venue. The mismanagement of the concert drew widespread criticism from people including content creators and celebrities such as Dana Bhai Joss and many people called it the worst concert of their lives while many others believed that the concert was worth the wait and money as they got to see Anuv Jain and the likes of Pritom perform on stage.

In this day and age, the youth in our city have been deprived of many activities and joy. They, especially teenagers, have to resort to hyper-commercialised spaces such as restaurants. Concerts are one of the few social gatherings that youngsters still look forward to post-pandemic. Accommodating international artistes within our local music scene means catering a bigger responsibility for organisers who mark to the same teenagers to offer a variety in terms of outdoor recreation. If indoor concert organisers act as profit-motivated entities with consumers having to purchase tickets at hefty prices, it inherently places an expectation for the organisers to do better instead of taking advantage of the shallow boredom that our teenagers face from a lack of recreational choices. The experience of an indoor concert should always feel rather welcoming and energising for not just the youth, but for all ages instead of it feeling like an unsafe experience.

Overall, the artistes performed with their hearts and souls to deliver the magic that was promised to the audience as it was one of the most hyped-up shows this year. However, it was also met with tragedy as the mismanagement brought many unfavourable outcomes.

 Anondo Sreyan is an undergraduate student at Independent University, Bangladesh. [email protected]