The world’s biggest hip hop festival officially opened its arms to India for the first time, and the Indian crowd did not disappoint. Screaming on top of their lungs, fans filled up the newly inaugurated Loud Park in India’s commercial capital and island city, Mumbai.
Who did they welcome? A stellar line up including Don Toliver, Central Cee, Wiz Khalifa, Denzel Curry, Westside Gunn, Swae Lee, Rob Banks, and many more! While the entire lineup came prepared to deliver, Indian pop and Hip Hop sensation Karan Aujla had all eyes on him as he claimed the title of being the only artist ever at Rolling Loud with the same nationality as the host country. Check out the complete lineup below!
Spread out over two days, the concert took place in Navi Mumbai at a dedicated space that catered not only to music, but also to skateboarders and basketball players. With a strict focus on environmental impact, the fest mandates also included cheap yet high quality reusable cups with refilling stations across the venue.
Keeping in mind Mumbai’s traffic challenges, the organisers even managed to have dedicated taxi and parking areas to streamline entry and exit to the venue. Safe to say the festival made a good first impression in India. Furthermore, as Day 2 concluded, Tariq (co-founder, Rolling Loud) also announced plans of bringing the festival back for a second time in 2026!
Now, here’s a round up of some of our favourite performances from the two days:
Central Cee
Photo Credit: (Rolling Loud / Yash Pardeshi @FLECKMEDIA)
Central Cee made an entry that will be remembered fondly by many in India. From striking visuals that gleamed of a hero backstory, to Cench wearing a tee shirt with Hindu diety Shiva on it — every move screamed of the artist’s love for the host country. He performed crowd favourites and with hardly (if any) backing vocals. The performance was crisp and seasoned, shortly after which he also teased his upcoming release on social media where he name dropped the host city of Mumbai.
Westside Gunn
Photo Credit: (Rolling Loud / Shanmukh @FLECKMEDIA)
Westside Gun took the stage in a ski mask, rapping and revealing his identity on the way. Rapping live over grimey instrumentals, the rapper remarked how Mumbai was as grimey as his music, and how he appreciated the love being shown to him on the streets. At one point, he even resorted to rapping a capella, going ham with intricate flows and flawless delivery that left fans stunned. Towards the end, the artist also hinted at making a return to India at some point.
Don Toliver
Photo Credit: (Rolling Loud / Abhishek Samuel @FLECKMEDIA)
Don Toliver was truly a spectacle to behold at Rolling Loud. Perfectly in sync with his team and especially the guitarist, Don Toliver innovated and improvised autotuned melodies from existing tracks — all perfectly live. Many would run out of breath, but Don clearly put in hours into his craft, which is something that clearly paid off. Remarkably, his on-screen visuals were some of the best across the two days of the festival, and blended live footage with almost psychedelic animation, creating a surreal version of a once in a lifetime performance.
Sheck Wes
Photo Credit: (Rolling Loud / Sanketmali Patil @FLECKMEDIA)
Sheck Wes had the Rolling Loud crowd turned up from the get go. With infectious energy on stage as he bounced from one end to the other, the artist has the crowd eating out of his palms, so to speak. From his verse on F!EN to his infamous Mo Bamba drop, the rapper showcased unbelievable stamina with bare vocals ripping past the bass heavy instrumentals. The crowd, so packed at one point in the general admission section, kicked off chants of “f**k VIP” — to which Sheck Wes responded with performing Stick live. The energy was rightly channeled into moshpits immediately. Talk about crowd control!
Dababy
Dababy owns the stage like no other. After having largely shunned by many, Dababy’s defiant attitude translated itself perfectly to confident, chest thumping performances of some of the slickest flows heard across the festival. For the Indian fans, it was a sight to behold as he played across bar lines, stacking syllables in a manner that can only be described as a tight dribble. And boy, does Dababy have the handles right!
Of course, an honorable mention goes out to Wiz Khalifa, Swae Lee and Karan Aujla, who did their thing with fans that sang word for word. What other performances caught your eye? If you’re in India, you can look forward to the already announced return of the festival in 2026.
