Ali Azmat had already flown into Dhaka. Kaavish had arrived too. Atif Aslam was supposed to follow.
Tickets had been sold, posters circulated and thousands of fans were waiting.
Then the concerts disappeared from the calendar.
In November and December last year, Dhaka witnessed an extraordinary run of cancellations and postponements involving some of South Asia’s biggest performers.
A James-Ali Azmat concert was called off on the day of the show.
Jal’s “Sound of Soul” was postponed after failing to secure government permission.
Kaavish came to Dhaka but could not take the stage.
Anuv Jain’s concert was postponed over security concerns, while Atif Aslam’s much-publicised December show also collapsed amid problems over permissions and clearances.
For audiences, the explanations varied, or were sometimes far from clear.
Security concerns, administrative permission, the political situation and “unavoidable circumstances” repeatedly appeared in cancellation notices.
The uncertainty did not end with the change of year.
Indian singer Anupam Roy’s Dhaka concert was stopped at the last minute in June despite organisers saying preparations and approvals had been completed.
Rescheduled for August 1, it was stopped again, this time after the Cultural Affairs Ministry instructed organizers not to hold the event.
But what initially looked like a problem confined to concerts is increasingly taking on a broader and more troubling character.
In Kishoreganj, an Ashes-led concert lost permission following objections from Islamic scholars.
In Brahmanbaria, a police-organized cultural program descended into clashes after madrasa students objected to music.
A film screening in the same district had earlier been postponed following opposition from a Qawmi student group.
Elsewhere, Lalon programs, Basanta celebrations and other traditional events have faced obstruction.
Now pressure has reached a traditional boat race in Sylhet and an Urs in Savar, with groups mobilising to have the events stopped.
Taken individually, the incidents have different circumstances and cannot all be attributed to the same actors or motive.
Together, however, they are feeding a growing fear among artists, cultural activists and academics: Bangladesh’s cultural space may be shrinking as organizers increasingly confront administrative uncertainty, ideological objections, mob pressure and the threat of violence.
That fear is particularly acute because at least 20 concerts or major live-music programs have been cancelled, postponed or forcibly stopped since August 2024 -- although some were disrupted for clearly unrelated reasons such as floods, weather or genuine crowd-safety concerns.
Pressure spreads beyond concert stages
The latest disputes suggest the pressure is no longer confined to live music.
In Savar, protests have been lodged with the local administration and police demanding cancellation of an Urs scheduled for August 26-27.
In Beanibazar, Sylhet, a group operating under the banner of “Tawhidi Janata” has campaigned against an August 28 traditional boat race on the Sunai River and held a meeting at a local mosque demanding that it be stopped.
Bangladesh Udichi Shilpi Gosthi General Secretary Amit Ranjan Dey said concerts, films and traditional festivities were integral parts of Bangladesh’s diverse cultural identity.
“Such acts hinder the development of our culture,” he said, calling repeated attempts to stop cultural programs “shameful” and urging the government to act against groups obstructing them.
Fear of a chilling effect
Dhaka University sociologist Tawohidul Haque said the consequences could extend beyond the programs already disrupted.
“We are observing with great concern that concerts are being closed and traditional events are being prevented in various places,” he said, warning that the incidents were creating fear and anxiety.
His greater concern is what happens next: repeated obstruction could eventually persuade people not to organize or attend cultural activities at all.
“Due to repeated obstacles, people will refrain from these things out of fear, resulting in the fear of the cultural sphere shrinking,” he said.
Independent MP Rumeen Farhana has also raised the issue in the National Parliament, accusing forces seeking to take Bangladesh “towards darkness” and portray it as a fundamentalist state of being behind such activities.
Concern has been reinforced by attacks on religious and folk-cultural sites.
Police previously reported 44 attacks on 40 shrines since August 2024, including vandalism and looting, with 23 people arrested in related criminal cases.
Following an attack on the Shah Ali shrine in Mirpur, Transparency International Bangladesh said such violence should not be treated as isolated, describing it as part of continuing attacks on folk traditions, pluralism and Bangladesh’s religious and cultural diversity.
Police promise action
Police Headquarters says it is monitoring groups attempting to obstruct cultural events.
AIG (Media and PR) AHM Shahadat Hossain said intelligence surveillance had been increased and local authorities had been instructed to remain alert over developments in Sylhet and Savar.
“No one will get away with committing a crime, and anyone who tries to create chaos will be dealt with severely,” he said.
Significantly, opposition to indiscriminate obstruction has also come from Islamic scholars.
Tanzimul Ummah Foundation Vice Chairman Meem Atiqullah said not every cultural or social ritual contradicted Islam and warned against preventing programs without properly understanding their nature.
“Islam does not teach anyone extremism,” he said, adding that Islam did not support excess or intolerance.
The emerging concern, therefore, is no longer simply whether another concert will be cancelled.
It is whether repeated pressure, threats and violence, and authorities’ willingness or inability to resist them, will gradually establish an informal veto over Bangladesh’s public cultural life.
For organizers, artists and audiences, that uncertainty itself risks becoming a restriction: a cultural program does not have to be formally banned if fear of the reaction is enough to stop it from being organized.
