The world’s largest concert witnessed 35 lakh people, 100 times more than Diljit Dosanjh’s Delhi concert, the artistes were…
On New Year’s Eve 1994, the world’s largest concert was held on Rio de Janeiro’s Copacabana Beach, with 3.5 million fans in attendance.
On Saturday, Diljit Dosanjh returned to India after months to perform in Delhi as part of his Dil-Luminati Tour. According to reports, his concert at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium was attended by 35,000 screaming fans. This makes it a large concert by Indian standards. However, if one takes a look at the biggest music festivals the world has seen, Diljit’s show dwarfs it in comparison. The largest of them had 100 times more people.
The world’s largest concert
In December 1994, a lavish New Year’s Eve party was held on Rio de Janeiro’s Copacabana Beach. In the past, the city hosted grand events in which major international artists performed. These festivals always draw large crowds, as admission is free, and there are no restrictions on food and alcohol. Lakhs of people participate in these events creating a carnival like atmosphere. On December 31, 1994, Rod Stewart performed at the Copacabana and broke records with an attendance of 3.5 million on the beach, which exceeded the population of several neighboring cities.
Three years later, French composer Jean-Michel Jarre equaled this record with his performance at Oxygene, another free concert in Moscow. The 35 lakh attendance of both these programs makes them a hundred times bigger than Diljit’s mega Delhi concert.
Most ticketed concerts in the world
But a concert is attended by millions of people only when the admission is free. Ticketed concerts usually have much lower attendance, but those numbers are impressive nonetheless. The largest-ticketed concert to date was by Italian artist Vasco Rossi, whose 2017 Modena Park concert was attended by 2.25 million fans. In India, the biggest ticketed concerts were by Justin Bieber in Mumbai in 2021 and by Diljit Dosanjh in 2023. 50,000 people participated in both.
