HappySattva: A festival of love, light and laughter

Designed to engage over 75,000 B'loreans in face-to-face, offline events

Today’s hyper-connected, net-savvy society might have ironically switched off the once-cherished offline, face-to-face communications. To rescue that old-fashioned art of conversations from total oblivion, HappySattva, a festival of love, light and laughter is about to make a huge splash across Bangalore.

Kicking off on October 16, the five-month fest will place over 75,000 Bangaloreans right in the midst of a riveting mix of events based on art, culture, sports and lively entertainment. Designed to spark a thousand debates, conversations and active engagements, the event will bring in corporates, NGOs, artists and individuals. As HappySattva founder, Neeraj Varma explained, the idea is built around a well-proven concept: Miracles happen when people meet.

Dubbed “Ride for a cause,” a Bulleteer ride across town will formally launch the festival. In the weeks that follow, HappySattva will unleash its full potential through a range of festivals focused on photography, theatre, art, music, dance, graffiti, street art and short films. Also on the fest menu is a deadly medley of intellectual games, quizzes, non-traditional sport and fun-based contests.

A blind car rally, with visually handicapped participants reading cryptic instructions in Braille; a “Color me happy” run on the 10k marathon format; heritage walks, group excursions, an organic farming experience, fund-raising events peppered with interactive fun are all part of the agenda. To get HappySattva rock Bangalore, the organisers are also in talks with the State government, BBMP, the police and the army.

Having pioneered the unique night marathon concept in Bangalore, Varma had tasted remarkable success in building active connections among people. “A study had clearly shown 55 per cent of human communications work on face-to-face body language. That requires people meeting people physically. Getting stuck on phones and Whatsapp fosters a culture of hiding behind,” he elaborated on the thought process that triggered Happy Sattva.

Gift of Light

The “Gift of Light” event slotted as the festival’s culmination on March 8, 2015, will dramatically signify that yearning to connect people, even total strangers. Inspired by the ‘message in a bottle’ idea, this visually profound spectacle will have 50,000 helium balloons lit with LED lights go up into the night sky. Carrying messages written by the participants, the balloons will be simultaneously released from the city’s north, south, east and west corridors.
It is expected that each balloon will eventually float back to earth, with a message.

“Those who find these messages will be able to input the unique identity code from the message on our website. When they do this, they will find out who sent that message. They can then reach out to that person, thus completing the circle of engagement,” Varma told Deccan Herald.