Credit: Special arrangement
BLR Hubba, the city’s annual arts and culture celebration, returns on January 16. The 10-day festival will host more than 350 events spanning music, theatre, dance, food, art, and heritage. It will feature over 800 artists and speakers, around 45 of whom are from outside India.
The festival will unfold across 30 locations. Freedom Park will be the largest venue. Bangalore International Centre (BIC), the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA), Sabha BLR, Panchavati, Alliance Française, Ravindra Kalakshetra, Indian Institute of World Culture, and Yuvapatha, are among other major venues.
Anchored by the UnBoxingBLR Foundation, BLR Hubba is curated by a 12-member team. Chief facilitator Ravichandar V describes it as a “festival of festivals”, noting that nearly 80% of the programmes this year have never been presented in Bengaluru before. The number of sub-festivals has expanded to 12, up from seven last year.
Freedom Park will host a children’s festival titled ‘Makkala Hubba’. Visitors can try out ‘Elli, Ekke, Ennu’, a life-size puzzle based on the city, or engage with ‘Atada Angala’, an installation featuring five board games inspired by the city and Karnataka’s culture, and ‘Cook & Keep’, a multiplayer interactive game inspired by Karnataka’s cuisine. Storytelling sessions in English and Kannada will be held at ‘Odu-Nali’, a pop-up library.
Around 20 art installations will be set up at Freedom Park as part of ‘Kala Hubba’. “The festival will feature nearly 50 installations across venues, and those at Freedom Park are themed on interpretations of freedom,” Ravichandar said.
‘Thindi Hubba’ at Freedom Park will serve 18 varieties of street food from Delhi, West Bengal, Bihar, eastern Uttar Pradesh, and other regions.
‘Vishesha Hubba’ will be held across venues, of which ‘Culture-Otsava’, an event celebrating Karnataka’s food, games, history, and innovation will be held at NGMA on January 17 and 18.
‘Anubhava Hubba’ will be held across multiple locations. It is designed as a participatory experience where “the audience is also a participant, not just an observer”. It includes ‘First-Hand’, a 90-minute multi-sensory session at BIC, a heritage walk at Someshwara Temple, an Art Deco walk in Malleswaram, and night walks through central Bengaluru.
‘Future Hubba’ will feature discussions on the future of art, diplomacy, artificial intelligence, and technology across BIC and Alliance Française. International speakers include experts from MIT and Austria-based Ars Electronica. The ‘Namma Bengaluru Challenge ’26’ is another highlight of this sub-festival. It is a Shark Tank-style event where five shortlisted startups will receive funding of Rs 25 lakh each.
Nine ‘Raste Hubba’ (street festivals) will be held over weekends across neighbourhoods such as Malleswaram, Koramangala, and Mahadevapura.
From January 16 to 25. For details, visit blrhubba.in.