Vanakkam Vanakkam, the South Indian hip-hop touring festival built around Kerala rapper Vedan, is heading to Chennai next, after its Bengaluru debut on April 11 drew a packed house at Bhartiya Mall. Tamil rappers Arivu and Asal Kolaar, who were part of the Bengaluru lineup, will be back on stage for the Chennai edition, which the organisers confirmed almost immediately after the show wrapped.
The Bengaluru show brought more than eight artists from three states onto a single stage. Vedan headlined alongside Capri, Stik, Chandan Shetty and Dagaldi, with Arivu and Asal Kolaar’s Tamil sets drawing some of the loudest response of the night. Folding Malayalam, Kannada and Tamil hip-hop into one evening is still rare enough to be the draw, and the organisers leaned into that cross-state mix rather than building around a single headliner.
The tour’s name comes from Vedan’s stage line, vanakkam vanakkam, a greeting he has used to open sets for years and which has since become a cultural shorthand among younger fans. Alt+ and The High Culture, the two promoters behind the festival, are positioning the run as a step in building a standalone South Indian hip-hop circuit, separate from the film-music ecosystem that still dominates live bookings in the region.
After Chennai, the tour is set to move to Hyderabad and Mumbai, with international dates planned further out.
