India, Aug. 29 -- It's a balmy March night in Mumbai. Lollapalooza 2025 has just ended on a high note. Louis Tomlinson, Glass Animals and Hanumankind played to 60,000-odd attendees. Green Day closed the show. But as the concert wraps up, the crowd finds that the dream has ended and the nightmare has just begun.

Nush Lewis, musician and music educator, tries, like everyone else, to exit the Mahalaxmi Race Course. The exits are so badly managed that it takes her 20 minutes just to get out of the venue. It's 10.30pm. She and her friends try to book a cab, but despite the 100% surge price, none are to be found. It's a full 45 minutes before a cab finally accepts their booking, only it can't get to the pickup point. Traffic has snaked up to a...