Coachella 2023: South Asian artists and fans take over festival

The Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, among the most profitable music events in the world, takes place over two consecutive weekends every April in Indio, California.

This year, Indian singer and actor Diljit Singh Dosanjh and Pakistani singer and composer Ali Sethi are among South Asian acts debuting at the festival as they perform alongside international acts like BLACKPINK, Kid Laroi, Charli XCX, Labrinth, Jai Wolf, Joy Crookes, Jai Paul, Frank Ocean and Underworld.

Sethi's Pasoori was the most searched song of 2022 on Google. Dosanjh, hugely popular among the Indian diaspora worldwide, will be the first Punjabi language singer to perform at the festival.

Last year's lineup also included South Asian artists like Raveena Aurora and Arooj Aftab, but the elevated profiles of this year's performers makes it a huge moment for fans.

"If there was going to be a time to go to this festival, it was now. This is the year," Brooklyn resident Gauree Patel says.

Growing up in Texas, Garima Singh could never have imagined a "South Asian artist at a prominent American music festival". She will be at Coachella this year with six South Asian friends from different parts of country to "hear, see and dance along" with Dosanjh who they consider "one of their own".

The diversity and "brown inclusivity" at Coachella is appealing to fans of South Asian artists who see it as an opportunity to "experience joy" like other Americans.

Ms Patel says a dozen of her friends chatted about "our community" being at Coachella and felt a the sense of affinity.

"Music festivals allow white people to experience joy, connect with each other, centring their experience," Ms Patel says. "This is what it will mean for us South Asians. We too will have the experience of being centred at Coachella."

South Asian singers and film stars frequently tour North American venues thronged by their fans.

Radhika Kalra has attended multiple concerts by Dosanjh in the US and Canada but says she "can't miss him on such a huge stage".

"It's about time they get this stage," she says.

A trained dancer, Ms Kalra plans to have nine friends - all South Asian girls from New York - "practice a few steps to the Diljit song Black & White" for the festival.

For the South Asians who grew up in North America listening to Bollywood and other South Asian film songs, this is a milestone nod to their culture.

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