Ireland meets India at Kumar Klub
When it comes to straddling different cultures, DJ, broadcaster and musician Tara Kumar knows the feeling only too well. Being born to a dad from Belfast and an Indian-Malaysian mother, who also owned the local Irish bar-Indian restaurant in Alice Springs in the Aussie outback, is “the perfect recipe for an identity crisis”. It’s also kept life exciting. Growing up in an Irish-Indian pub was “the best of both worlds, two cultures colliding, from Irish stew and Guinness to vindaloo and mango lassi,” she says.
That unique cultural mix is something that Tara is exploring more as she makes waves in London. She had been studying music and playing in bands, and was nearly signed to Sony in Australia as a teen, but she eventually left Alice Springs for Dublin, where she scored a slot on radio station RTÉ 2FM. After a three-year residency hosting the station’s flagship nightly New Music show, and six years in total at the station, she moved over to London, where she’s had regular hosting gigs on BBC Radio 1’s Future Sounds and Future Artists, DJed at the likes of the GQ Men of the Year and the Universal Records BRITs Afterparty, and collaborated with brands like Ganni, Levi’s, and eBay.
Fashion has always been a big part of her expression and is one of the key ways Tara represents both sides of her heritage. She’s created a distinctive aesthetic that blends vintage clothing – “I’ve always romanticised the stories behind pre-loved clothes, who wore them before me, and what kind of life they lived” – with traditional Indian elements, like saris, jhumkas and pottus, and streetwear, particularly Irish brands Pellador, Emporium, and Storefront. “My go-to outfit would be an Adidas tracksuit, the biggest pair of Indian earrings I can find, and a pottu to finish the look.”
Tara was always destined for a career centred around music. As well as playing the flute, saxophone and guitar, she grew up surrounded by music, “Irish trad from my dad, my Amma’s favourite Bollywood soundtracks, and Tamil classical music playing on my Thatha’s record player.” Though she loves sharing music, she admits that radio can be quite a solitary job, “when you’re live on air, it’s just you and a producer, you don’t see the people you’re speaking to. That’s why I started hosting in person nights, so I could connect with people face-to-face.”
Kumar Klub is Tara’s way of combining her mixed heritage with her love of both music and food, and creating community at the same time. And yes, there’s merch because you didn’t think she would leave fashion out, did you?
What started as “any excuse to throw a party” has evolved into some pretty epic gatherings, including a South Asian horror movie night featuring Indian-inspired cinema food; an Adidas supper club at Irish-Indian spot Shankey’s; a St Patrick’s Day party at Foundation FM with live trad and Tayto chaat; a collab with Guinness in Cork last year where she took over a back room at Coughlan’s Bar, where they handed out over 100 onion bhajis to the crowd; and a 12-hour St Paddy’s Day party this year at The Fox in Haggerston.
And there’s plenty more to come in 2026, with more parties planned in both Ireland and the UK, sit-down events in the calendar, and a new charity project in the works too. She’s already held a fundraiser in aid of Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, a charity very close to her heart, and she’s recently been mentoring at the Dharavi Dream Project, a creative sanctuary for under-resourced youths in India, so we’re keen to see what else she turns her hand to.
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