international pop stars seem to give the capital a wide birth when it comes to performing in the city you can count the events on your fingers the last time someone like bryan adams performed in the capital was way back in 2006 compare this to bangalore which hosted deep purple in 2006 the scorpions in 2007 and will be hosts to def leppard in october this year even mumbai which got roger waters of pink floyd fame in 2006 and iron maiden earlier this year is way ahead of the capital when it comes to entertainmentwith delhi set to host the commonwealth games in 2010 expectations are skyhigh for the city according to an assocham study almost 10 million visitors are expected to come to delhi during the month of october in 2010 when the city plays hosts to over 5000 athletes from more than 50 countries the ground reality however is quite grim events are difficult to hold as suitable venues are not available and those that are have long waiting queues says prateek chaudhuri wellknown sitar player the waiting time to hold an event in a good auditorium like kamani on a weekend is 10 months you can imagine the crunch for good venues from thatevent management companies admit that a sole kamani or siri fort auditorium is not enough to build a reputation for entertainment the only obstacle to holding any largescale event in delhi is the total lack of venues an indira gandhi stadium can hold only 8000 people which is too little says sandeep mehta associate vicepresident wizcraft compare this to bangalores palace grounds where a crowd of 40000 plus turned up to watch deep purple in 2006event managers claim its not only the nonavailability of venues that add to the chaos there arent enough hotel rooms in the city either with barely a dozenodd star hotels even the small ones are crowded in season which is during the summer vacations and winter says rakesh mishra of sutra an event management company the perception is that even an event with 10000 people brings the city to a halt holding conferences is equally difficult a taj darbar can seat only 400 people whereas a grand hyatt in mumbai can easily accommodate 600 people points out mehtathe mentality of the denizens is equally to blame here only a governmentsponsored event can go off smoothly otherwise everyone wants a pass even before the event has been organised rues mishra its a point that mehta agrees with even if you manage to get all the licenses and clearances whats the point of hosting an event if even ticketed seats have to be given away as passes he questionshigher entertainment taxes a long line of licenses you require 21 licenses in delhi to host an event says mishra and the attendant problems prove to be too much for many the extra precautions that one has to take like getting sniffer dogs if its large crowd