From clubbing to kirtan, Gen Z find a new groove in bhajan raves

It started as an occasional sober Saturday plan. Zoomers would rather sip and savour a cuppa joe instead of nursing a drink, or worse, a hangover the day after. Now, they have decided to groove to a whole new beat. Forget psychedelic raves or K-pop parties, Gen Z would rather shake a leg to kirtan EDM and dance the night away at bhajan-led community gatherings.

Platforms, organisers and spiritual creators say the momentum is strong enough to become a mainstream format in 2026. Sort My Scene founder Srida Patodia says the numbers are promising.

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“Bhajan-inspired club nights and other spiritual-social formats are generating unusually high-ticket volumes,” she notes and adds that people are travelling across cities to attend them. Repeat attendance is beating expectations.

“Even mainstream nightlife promoters are experimenting with bhajan-style jam sessions,” she says, noting that tier 1, 2 and even tier 3 cities are beginning to lean in.

Ticketed devotional nights are selling out. Google trends shows that searches for ‘bhajan clubbing’, ‘modern kirtan’, and ‘sober rave India’ have risen 400-600% since early 2024. This isn’t fringe any longer. The shift is being shaped in part by the rise of devotional creators and community-first youth groups.

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ISKCON’s youth-led gatherings, the Art of Living’s young meditators’ circles, and the popularity of global kirtan artists like London-based Radhika Das, whose Delhi concert drew 15,000 attendees, are establishing the blueprint. Brother-sister duo Prachi and Raghav Agarwal, known as Backstage Siblings, have turned bhajan-led jam sessions into Instagram-driven cultural events.

Organisers say next year will see more structured devotional nightlife. Temple Connect—a faithtech company—is supporting large-format gatherings like Dilli Gao Jai Hanuman in January.