An Indian hospital has come under fire after hosting a live music night inside its premises, with doctors and social media users questioning whether a healthcare facility is an appropriate place for a Saturday night party.
The event, called “HOSPITA/ITY vol.001”, was hosted by Bengaluru-based healthcare startup Superhealth on Saturday, in collaboration with events company Localhost HQ.
It featured live performances by multiple artists and was held on non-clinical floors of the Superhealth hospital after outpatient department (OPD) hours.
The organisers appeared to know that hosting a music event inside a hospital might raise a few eyebrows, and Superhealth founder and CEO Varun Dubey described the night as “our way of opening our spaces back to the community to let them experience hospitals as a place that is not scary, inviting and is maybe even joyful” in promotional material.
“House rules” stipulated that the event and clinical floors would remain separate, patient areas would stay private, access to inpatient departments would be restricted, and emergency routes would remain open.
Alcohol, smoking and vaping were banned, while sound levels were to be monitored throughout the night. There was even a suitably wholesome drinks menu: “Superboosters, kombucha, music and good energy”.
However, the unusual choice of venue quickly became the main event.
A post on X attempted to explain the philosophy a little better, with the user writing: “We fear hospitals and forget most of us were born in one. The first room you ever entered was a hospital room. Spending Saturday night reminding Bengaluru of that, with live music in the corridors.”
That sentiment did not exactly receive a standing ovation.
One X user described the event as “absolutely pathetic and cringe” and questioned what precedent it set for infection control in hospitals, and another argued that there was a difference between bringing “music, art and community into healthcare spaces and making the hospital itself the venue for a Saturday night party”.
“Turning a place of care into a rave isn’t edgy, it’s insensitive,” another wrote.
Dr Cyriac Abby Philips, known online as The Liver Doc, was among the most outspoken critics.
In a post on X, he questioned whether the greater problem was holding a “hospital rave” in an actual hospital or trying to defend the idea afterwards with what he called “huge word salads using olympic-level mental gymnastics”.
Dr Philips said he spent most of his adult life in hospitals and argued that what comforts patients is “humanism, clarity in discussion, helping cope with reality through truthful connection, empathy and sound communication” rather than what he described as a social experiment.
Dr Divya Sharma similarly described the event as “peak techbro arrogance”, arguing that healthcare is heavily regulated because “sterilisation, ethics, privacy, and patient trust matter”.
Although Superhealth described the event as a music night, it was repeatedly labelled a “hospital rave” by many on social media, which made it sound considerably more jarring.
Dr Hema Venkataraman wrote that “calling it a ‘rave party’ was the breaking point”, leading Dubey to clarify that Superhealth had never used the term itself.
One person on X described hospital waiting rooms as places of anxiety and said anyone who had lost someone close would understand their “gravity”, adding: “Some places have a sanctity you just don’t meddle with.”
Dubey responded to the criticism in a lengthy post on X, acknowledging that the idea sounded “a little WTF” but insisting that it had been carefully organised around the hospital’s normal operations.
According to his statement, the OPDs closed at 8pm, the event began at 10pm and registration took place in the OPD lobby. The music event itself was restricted to the basement, mezzanine, and fourth floor, where Superhealth’s office is located.
Active inpatient areas, he said, were “completely off-limits” and separated from the event by multiple floors and extensive sound insulation. “To be absolutely clear: no music or event related sound reached the patients,” Dubey wrote. “Not ‘almost zero.’ Zero.”
He added that all the patients and their attendants were invited, and attendees joined because they were bored, looking for a distraction, or “because a hospital can feel like a very lonely place on a Saturday night”.
“If we can offer people a few hours of distraction, warmth or joy without compromising their care or rest, we believe that effort is worth making,” he wrote.
The Independent has reached out to Superhealth and Local Host HQ for comment.
