Festivals From India, an India-UK initiative for arts and culture, is the first-ever digital platform created to showcase hundreds of Indian arts and culture festivals for culture-seekers across the globe. Made possible by British Council and designed and developed by ArtBramha (a sister concern of the Art X Company) the platform launched on 20^th April and will celebrate the arts, cultural diversity, and the coming together of communities.

Festivals From India hosts festivals from across a range of genres including Arts and Crafts, Design, Dance, Film, Folk Arts, Food and Culinary Arts, Heritage, Literature, Interdisciplinary and/ or Multiarts, Music, New Media, Photography, Theatre and Visual Arts amongst others, across locations and languages. It shines the spotlight on hundreds of emerging and established festivals, including visual art festivals like India Art Fair, St+art; multi-art festivals like Serendipity Arts Festival, Utopian Dystopia; photography festivals like Chennai Photo Biennale, literature festivals Jaipur Literature Festival, Bookaroo Children’s Literature Festival, TATA Literature Live!; film festivals Dharamshala International Film Festival, Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival, KASHISH Mumbai International Queer Film Festival; theatre festivals Mahindra Excellence in Theatre Awards, Ranga Shankara Theatre Festival, Pratibimb Marathi Natya Utsav and music festivals like BACARDÍ NH7 Weekender, Jodhpur RIFF, Jazz Weekender (the addendum to this release has the complete list), among many others.

Festival audiences will find easy access to India’s key cultural experiences across urban and rural locations with updates on artist line-ups, locations, facilities, and information to know before leaving for their destinations. The platform also hosts a range of hidden gems, select LGBTQIA+ festivals as well as online versions of festivals live-streamed for audiences worldwide.

“We have made possible the Festivals from India platform with ArtBramha in India and the Audience Agency in the UK to develop new audiences and showcase the huge variety of arts and culture festivals here; develop business skills of festival managers with UK and Indian experts and grow international partnerships and networks with the UK and beyond. Backed by research this new platform is a repository of guidance for families wanting to find a festival and for festival organisers wanting to make their event more accessible or find a job. British Council research Taking The Temperature with FICCI, Art X Company and Smart Cube confirms 88% of the creative industries are Micro, Small and Mid-size enterprises, with Covid-19 impacting the independent and emerging festivals with 50% losing over 51% of their income in 2020-21. The platform is launching at the right time as the arts and festivals are reopening for physical engagements worldwide after two years of the pandemic-led closures. We hope Festivals From India will be a gateway to destination India and to grow even more artistic collaboration with the UK and internationally. It will build trust through cultural relations and strengthen the creative economy through partnerships that really matter – between artists, festivals, and audiences. The box office is open, and we welcome everyone to explore, experience and engage” states Jonathan Kennedy, Director Arts India, British Council.