ਇਹ ਲੇਖ ਪੰਜਾਬੀ ਵਿੱਚ ਪੜ੍ਹੋ। Read this article in Punjabi.
This was the plan: after months of secret negotiations and finessing announcement plans, Parramatta’s lord mayor would stand in the middle of CommBank Stadium and announce the news: Indian mega-star Diljit Dosanjh would be coming to Parramatta in October for a magical, one-night-only performance.
And then the singer dropped the news to his 26.7 million Instagram fans one day early.
Diljit Dosanjh at the Met Gala in New York this year.Credit: Getty Images
If the phones ringing off the hook at the stadium with fans pleading for tickets were anything to go by, Parramatta had nabbed something genuinely momentous: 30,000 fans, largely from the Indian diaspora, will pack into the city’s stadium on October 26 to bear witness to the first Indian ever to perform a stadium concert in Australia. When tickets went on sale, Ticketmaster’s website crashed.
Those who haven’t heard of Diljit Dosanjh are quickly becoming a minority: the singer, with hits including G.O.A.T. and Lover, is arguably the most celebrated Punjabi in the world. He has skyrocketed into further stardom with historic appearances at Coachella and the Met Gala, graced the cover of Billboard magazine and has sung on Jimmy Fallon’s The Tonight Show. He’s even been given his own replica model at Madame Tussauds.
Diljit Dosanjh in Melbourne during his last world tour in 2023.Credit: Rick Clifford
“He’s inspirational,” said Akanksha Mukhi, 40, who describes herself as a “diehard fan”. She and husband Rahul run Bollywood Burgers in Penrith and North Rocks and are preparing a special menu for his visit.
“Diljit is famous because he represents a very important part of India – that is, Punjab,” she said. “We as Punjabis, we’ve always been known for loving fun, we are very rooted in culture, we are hard-working. But Diljit has given us a global outlook.
“He has been an inspiration for us, to be honest. As immigrants, we can relate to him … When you see a person from your own state, your own region, doing so well, he inspired us that we can thrive, we can create something unique if we work hard.
“For the Punjabi community, this concert is like a homecoming. It’s the recognition of our presence. And Parramatta is just like our second home. Diljit Dosanjh coming to Parramatta is going to bring in so much business and so much buzz in the area.”
Husband Rahul Mukhi, children Harvey and Hazel, wife Akanksha and grandmother Madu at the family’s Bollywood Burgers restaurant at North Rocks. The family is hoping Dosanjh will try their burgers inspired by him.Credit: Jessica Hromas
A landmark stadium concert
Getting one of the world’s biggest stars to visit your city is no easy feat. Indian pop had been steadily increasing in popularity in Australia over the past few years – and Venues NSW, the state government agency that manages Sydney’s stadiums, had been tracking its rise closely. Then they got word Dosanjh’s promoters were preparing to bring his Aura Tour Down Under.
With only a few months before the tour was due to arrive, the agency contacted the City of Parramatta to partner in campaigning for Dosanjh’s promoter, TEG Live, to book CommBank Stadium instead of choosing another venue at Sydney Olympic Park or closer to Sydney’s CBD.
There were two factors that made CommBank Stadium in Parramatta a good choice: size and demographics.
“More and more, we’ve convinced artists – and you’re seeing them do this around the world as well – to perform in open-air stadiums, where they can perform to greater audiences,” said Venues NSW chief executive Kerrie Mather.
Dosanjh last year performed in front of 48,000 people at a stadium in Vancouver, Canada – it was reported at the time as the largest Punjabi-language concert outside of India.
But if there was competition for a Sydney venue, Parramatta’s demographics were hard to beat. Data from the 2021 census shows 29,100 people in the Parramatta local government area were born in India, about 11.3 per cent of the population. When looking at western Sydney as a whole, people born in India constitute the largest proportion of immigrant residents, with more 139,000 calling the region home.
“The Indian market is a fantastic market,” said Mather, who previously led Sydney Airport and lobbied for more flights connecting India to Sydney, largely because of a growing number of families and friends seeking to visit relatives.
The City of Parramatta had been proactive in cultivating relationships with groups for events that feel uniquely Parramatta, the city’s Lord Mayor Martin Zaiter said.
“Based on the amount of events that the City of Sydney has gotten over the years, it’s clear to me they’ve been front and centre,” he said. “It only makes sense [for us to be] first in line for opportunities like these.”
The concert’s date, October 26, was a carefully orchestrated affair: after some negotiating, it falls at the end of both the council’s Parramatta Lanes festival – bringing in tens of thousands of locals around the stadium – and the week of the Hindu festival of Diwali. It’s also the day before India plays Australia in a one-day international.
“For the Punjabi community, this concert is like a homecoming. It’s the recognition of our presence. And Parramatta is just like our second home.”
Akanksha Mukhi
“There was an opportunity to actually bring them together in a complementary way,” stadium boss Mather said, “making sure they weren’t going to be on the same night, and our Indian market didn’t have to make a choice between the two of them, and visitors to Sydney who wanted to go to the cricket and the performance as well would be able to do both.
“When you’re talking about broadcasting events that involve India, you’re talking about … a Super Bowl-sized audience. So that’s a key factor in driving the timing.”
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On the night of the concert, the stadium will have “next-level staging, epic visuals and a really high-energy set list”, Mather promised. The council is preparing to install lights and have dancers perform in Parramatta and Centenary squares, as well as along Eat Street, to welcome fans to the area.
The work will be worth it: the council points to Destination NSW modelling showing similar events have injected up to $3 million into the local economy.
Mukhi hopes Dosanjh will notice Bollywood Burgers’ new menu, featuring a samosa burger and an aloo tikki burger, and drop by. But even if he doesn’t, she’ll be at the concert with her young nephew, delighted to get a reminder of home.
The Sydney Morning Herald has opened a bureau in the heart of Parramatta. Email parramatta@smh.com.au with news tips.
