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Tyla, Charlotte de Witte and Lil Yachty Send Mumbai Spinning At Indian Sneaker Festival’s Biggest Edition Yet
From Tyla and Lil Yachty to Charlotte de Witte and Alok, Indian Sneaker Festival’s seventh edition debuted in Mumbai with a heavyweight music bill with a bustling marketplace of global and homegrown streetwear showcases.
A festival that started off as an experimental rooftop hang has turned into a cultural melting pot where sneaker and music enthusiasts alike come together to celebrate the power of youth. Indian Sneaker Festival’s long-teased Mumbai debut finally hit MMRDA Grounds in Bandra Kurla Complex on December 6 and 7, after years of building a community in New Delhi and Gurugram including a January 2025 edition in Gurugram headlined by 21 Savage’s India debut.
The festival arrived in Mumbai with a two-stage lineup that included a Grammy-winning pop star Tyla, rap visionary Lil Yachty, Belgian techno powerhouse Charlotte de Witte and Brazilian DJ Alok alongside Pan-Pot, Nicole Moudaber, Magdalena, Cristoph and homegrown names like KR$NA, Kayan and Baby Jean.
Day one turned MMRDA grounds into a techno playhouse with global legend Charlotte de Witte who was one of the festival’s most consequential bookings. Currently ranked No. 7 on DJ Mag’s Top 100 DJs list, she is a fixture on the world’s biggest electronic stages and a defining voice of modern techno, and she affirmed her status as one of the best with a 90-minute set that turned a sneaker-driven event into something closer to a late-night Berlin underground show. For Mumbai’s techno faithful, who often travel to Goa or Europe for this level of artistry, seeing de Witte play an open-to-all culture festival underscored how aggressively ISF is broadening its appeal.
The weekend’s defining image, though, belonged to Tyla. Fresh off her Grammy win, the South African hitmaker made her much-anticipated India debut on Day 2, playing to an estimated 60,000-strong crowd that turned MMRDA into a pop quake with the crowds dancing along with the star to her anthems like “CHANEL” and “Water," a crossover moment that signalled just how dialled in India's audience is with global fads.
Off-stage, the grounds felt like a living showroom for India’s booming streetwear economy. Around 60 global and homegrown brands, from majors like New Balance, Foot Locker, Fila and Puma to labels such as Comet, Gully Labs, Natty Garb, Deadbear, and Kilogram — set up shop with limited drops and interactive zones for customisation and live art. What began in 2021 as a modest event has now evolved into a full-scale culture marketing platform, where brands court India’s next wave of consumers in real time and creators capture every fit check for the feed.
For a generation raised on sneaker resale apps, hip-hop tours and techno festivals, Indian Sneaker Festival Mumbai 2025 didn’t feel like a subculture breaking through; it felt like the new mainstream, one where what your fit is as central to the story as who’s headlining it.