Where: Freedom Park
When: 6-7 December, 2025
Now in its 14th version, the Bangalore Literature Festival returns with that acquainted combine town does so nicely: massive concepts and greater conversations. This 12 months’s speaker record spans continents and sensibilities: Amish Tripathi, creator of The Shiva Trilogy; filmmaker Gauri Shinde; Australian playwright Julie Janson; and kids’s creator Sudha Murty, amongst many others. Music threads by the weekend too: Smita Bellur brings a classical serenade on day one, and day two closes with a Carnatic efficiency by Sumana Chandrashekar and Saitejas Chandrashekar, a musical storytelling piece constructed totally across the rhythm and symbolism of the clay pot. The schedule is comfortably eclectic, dipping into literature, cinema, politics, identification and popular culture. Expect periods like “Vasanta: Stories from Sanskrit Plays” by Arshia Sattar; “Way of the Witch” with Ipsita Roy Chakraverti and Himanjali Sankar; “Hindi Heartland” that includes Ghazala Wahab and Tanuj Solanki; and “The Great Indian Brain Rot” with Anurag Minus Verma and Ravikant Kisana. In traditional BLF vogue, the competition additionally celebrates new writing with 9 Atta Galatta Book Awards, honouring voices formed in and past Bengaluru. It’s a weekend constructed for readers who like their books with a facet of debate, music and nostalgia.
India Art Festival
Where: Palace Grounds, Gate #5
When: 12-14 December, 2025
Palace Grounds turns into an open, walkable artwork map this December because the India Art Festival arrives in town, a up to date artwork truthful that started in 2011 and has since travelled by Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad earlier than Bengaluru will get its flip. It is designed for each type of artwork lover: the curious browser, the intense collector, and even the quiet observer. This version brings collectively 300+ artists and greater than 3,000 artworks, balancing rising, impartial voices with massive names and established galleries. The programming stretches past the partitions of the cubicles. Expect fusion exhibits with live music, portray demos that allow you to watch an art work come collectively in actual time, and “Conversations – Art Talks”, a two-day sequence of panels that unpack every thing from accumulating to inventive course of. Both days function public screenings of The Eternal Canvas – A 12,000 Year Journey Through Indian Art, a sweeping documentary that folds India’s artwork historical past into an hour of compelling storytelling.
Cubbon Park flower present
Cubbon Park, BengaluruE. M. Winterbourne / Adobe Stock