Festival guide · Sat 31 Oct 2026
Pushkar Fair 2026: eight days of camels, contests and Kartik Purnima on the lake
Pushkar, Rajasthan, Tuesday 17 to Tuesday 24 November 2026: eight days of camel trading and famous contests on a free fairground, closing on Kartik Purnima, when pilgrims bathe in Pushkar Lake.
What you need to know, in short: The Pushkar Fair 2026 runs in Pushkar, Rajasthan, from Tuesday 17 to Tuesday 24 November 2026. Rajasthan Tourism's official fairs and festivals calendar lists those dates, and the fair closes on Kartik Purnima, Tuesday 24 November, when pilgrims bathe in Pushkar Lake. The fairground is free to enter: the camels, the trading and the contests cost nothing to watch, while camel safaris, balloon flights and the ferris wheels on the ground are paid extras run by local operators.
Most Indian festivals belong to a city. Pushkar belongs to a small pilgrimage town that spends one week a year hosting one of the largest camel and livestock fairs in the world. Herders walk their animals in from across the Rajasthan desert, traders deal from dawn, and by the final day the fairground gives way to the lake, where the religious heart of the week has been beating all along. It is really two events sharing one set of dates: a working livestock market and a Kartik pilgrimage, and the art of planning it is knowing which one you are coming for, because they peak at opposite ends of the week.
The dates, and how sure they are
Our calendar lists the Pushkar Fair from 17 to 24 November 2026 with the status expected, and the label deserves a word of explanation. The dates themselves come from Rajasthan Tourism's published 2026 fairs and festivals calendar, the department's own listing for the year, and they are carried consistently by every source that cites it. What has not been published yet is the day by day programme: which morning carries which contest, and the running order of the cultural evenings. That detail is finalised closer to November by the district administration and Rajasthan Tourism, so plan your week around the window now and check the programme again before you travel. The fair follows the Hindu month of Kartik rather than the Gregorian calendar, which is why it lands on different dates each year and always closes on the full moon, Kartik Purnima.
The fairground: trading first, spectacle second
The fair begins, as it has for generations, as a market. Thousands of camels, horses and cattle are brought to the fair ground on the edge of town, and the serious business happens early: herders arrive in the days around the opening, animals are inspected, priced and sold, and the ground is at its fullest and most photogenic in the first half of the week. Come at dawn, when the light is low, the dust is golden and the trading is under way before the heat builds. Camels arrive decorated, painted and shaved into patterns, because an animal that looks magnificent also sells the herder's skill. If the livestock is your reason for coming, front-load your stay: by the last two days many traders have dealt and begun the walk home, and the ground belongs increasingly to the pilgrimage.
Contests and the cultural programme
Layered over the trading is the programme Rajasthan Tourism and the district administration run on the fair ground, and its contests have become famous in their own right. In recent years the line-up has included camel decoration and camel dance competitions, horse dancing, turban tying and moustache contests open to visitors as well as locals, matka phod, where blindfolded contestants swing at a hanging pot, and the bridal competition that draws one of the week's biggest crowds. Folk music and dance fill the evenings. None of it needs a ticket: you take your place at the edge of the arena and let the programme come to you. The exact running order for 2026 belongs to the programme still to be published, so treat the list above as the fair's established repertoire rather than a timetable, and pick your days once the official schedule lands.
Kartik Purnima on the lake
On Tuesday 24 November the fair changes key. Kartik Purnima, the full moon that closes the fair, is one of the most sacred days in Pushkar's year: pilgrims believe bathing in Pushkar Lake on this day carries special merit, and from before dawn the 52 ghats around the lake fill with people taking the ritual dip as the temples open. The town's great temple to Brahma, one of the very few in the world dedicated to the creator god, draws long queues. If you stay for the final day, go to the ghats early, dress modestly, keep cameras discreet around people bathing, and expect the town to be at its most crowded and its most moving at the same time. It is the opposite end of the week from the camel trading, and seeing both is seeing the whole fair.
Free ground, paid extras, and where to sleep
Entry to the fairground is free, and the lake and ghats are open as they always are. The money you spend at Pushkar goes on the extras: camel safaris out into the dunes, run by local operators and priced by the ride; hot air balloon flights over the fairground at dawn and dusk, weather permitting, which are among the most expensive seats of the week; and the ferris wheels and stalls of the fairground itself. Book the balloon and safari with operators on the ground once you can see the weather and the going rate, and agree the price and duration before you set off. Where you sleep matters more. Pushkar is a small town and its rooms fill for the fair, so the stay is the booking to make first: stay in Pushkar itself to walk to the ground at dawn, or base in Ajmer, the nearest railhead, roughly 11 kilometres away, where the trains from Delhi and Jaipur arrive and the hotel stock is deeper. Jaipur, the state capital and the usual gateway for this corner of Rajasthan, is covered in our Jaipur guide, and the hotels page carries the stay options wired for the region.
Before you book
Dates, venue and the checking notes are on the Pushkar Fair 2026 event page. Build the trip around Tuesday 17 to Tuesday 24 November 2026, choose your end of the week honestly, traders and contests early, pilgrimage and the full moon at the close, and book the bed before anything else. The daily programme is the one document still to come: when Rajasthan Tourism and the district administration publish it, the contest days slot into the plan you have already made.
More reading on the articles page, or go straight to the events calendar.