Showcasing India’s burgeoning cultures and creative disciplines, Homegrown’s 2^nd edition of #HGStreet Festival was held for the first time in Mumbai on 18^th and 19^th March 2023. The event was an opportunity for people from diverse backgrounds and passions to learn, network, and share knowledge with one another. 

Celebrating the intersection of creativity, music, arts, film, photography, sneakers and streetwear, fashion, sports, talks, pop-up stores, showcases, exhibitions, conversations, workshops & more, the two-day event saw more than 3000 people attend and get enthralled. Bringing alive this cultural fiesta in a historic industrial warehouse across 80,000 sq feet, - Richardson and Cruddas Mills, Byculla, #HGStreet was successful in celebrating underground artistic innovation and expression.    

The 2-day festival witnessed an entire range of engaging activities right from panel discussions by notable personalities across entertainment and technology industries to performances by next-generation artists. Global and Indian voices like OG Shez, Shah Rule, Rae Mulla, Soopy, Nida, Sahirah, Mary Ann, Yashraj, Sindhi Curry, Sickflip among others amazed the audience with their enthusiastic performances.   

Moreover, people also witnessed some interesting and engaging conversations at the workshops hosted by talented artists like Santanu Hazarika, Chaitanya Dixit, and Dar Gai: Film. The festival brought together more than 40 visual artists and futurists who highlighted their riveting pieces of art that immersed the audiences in the inspiration and story behind them. 

#HGStreet2023 was the melting point for diverse cultures. For the cinephiles and connoisseurs of everything luxury, the festival witnessed 6 exclusive fireside chats in spaces of Film, AI (Artificial Intelligence), and luxury helmed by celebrated local and global talent such as Shakun Batra, Director & Film Maker, Abderrahmane Trabsini, Founder of Daily Paper, among others.  There was a panel discussion on the topics Democratization of Storytelling with OTT-Diversity, freedom and creativity&Through Their Lens. The other panelists present at the festival were Sayani Gupta- Actor, Abhay Pannu- Writer/Director of Rocket Boys, Sonam Nair- Director of Masaba Masaba, Nimisha Pandey- Content Chief Officer at Zee5, Ashim Ahluwalia - Film Director & Screenwriter, Shriya Pilgaonkar- Actor, Reema Maya-Film Maker, Anvita Dutt Guptan- Film Writer & Director and Priya Seth, Cinematographer. These insightful discussions were moderated by Smriti Kiran, Creator, curator and creative consultant and RJ Prerna Nahata of Radio Mirchi, respectively.  

There was yet another interesting panel discussion that highlighted ‘The Evolution of Future of Homegrown Movements’ and the panelists were Aditya Mehta- Founder CEO Art & Found, Sakshi Juneja- Co-founder of Gaysi, Richa Shrivastava- Co-founder of Maker’s Asylum and was moderated by Aneesh Bhasin, Co-founder of Swami drinks. The other panel was on ‘Navigating the Future of Homegrown AI. How Will It Change The World? And the panelists were Prateek Arora- AI artist, Abhinav Aggarwal & Raghav Aggarwal- Co-founders of Fluid AI among others. The session was moderated by Mangalam Maloo, the news anchor & Assistant Editor at CNBC TV18. 

An exclusive HGSummit chat titled ‘Through the creative lens’ was hosted by Varsha Patra, Co-founder & CEO of Homegrown with actor Siddhanth Chaturvedi. The chat revealed some interesting stories of Siddhant as an actor as he captured his journey in the Bollywood industry. 

#HGStreets aims to champion a world brought together by diverse forms of art and creative disciplines and cultivate a platform that encourages free-flowing conversations and ingenuity. A fantastic way to connect with like-minded people across various streams and connect to emerging cultures; the festival was an attempt to build a sense of community collectively, which was successful.