Festival guide · 5 नवंबर 2026
India's festival calendar 2027, region by region: the year worth planning around
India does not have a festival season; it has a festival year. From the Magh Mela's opening baths in January to the Hornbill Festival in December, here is 2027 organised the way the country is: by region, with the dates on our listings, the honest expected labels where organisers have not confirmed, and where to stay for the big ones.
Ask an Indian when the festival season is and they will laugh. There is always a festival: a river fair in January, a kite sky in Gujarat, a carnival in Goa, ten days of goddesses in Kolkata, a hornbill in December. What changes across the year is where. This calendar takes 2027 region by region, using the festivals listed on India What's On, and marks the dates that are still expected rather than confirmed, because in India the difference matters and the organisers' confirmation is the one that counts.
The North: river fairs and the colour month
Magh Mela, Prayagraj, 15 January to 6 March. The year's first great gathering is a smaller sibling of the Kumbh Mela at the Triveni Sangam, where the Ganges, Yamuna and Saraswati meet. Pilgrims bathe on a calendar of holy days across seven weeks; even outside the peak days, the tented city on the floodplain is one of the great sights of Indian religious life.
Surajkund International Crafts Mela, Faridabad, 1 to 15 February. India's biggest crafts fair fills the Surajkund ground outside Delhi with weavers, potters and folk performers from across the country and beyond. It is the easiest festival on this page to reach: a day trip from the capital. In Delhi itself, the SARAS Aajeevika Mela runs through February at the Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium, a rural artisans' fair with food stalls worth the visit alone.
Taj Mahotsav, Agra, 18 to 27 February. Ten days of craft, food and performance at Shilpgram, in sight of the Taj Mahal's eastern gate. Go for the evening concerts and use the days for Agra itself, in the best weather month of the northern year.
Holi, 22 March, nationwide. The festival of colours falls on Monday 22 March in 2027, with the Holika Dahan bonfires the night before. Nowhere plays it like the Braj country around Mathura and Vrindavan, where the celebrations run for a week; Delhi, Jaipur and every city in the north have their own versions. Holi dates follow the lunar calendar and are marked expected until the official calendar confirms them.
The West: kites, books and a carnival
International Kite Festival, Ahmedabad, 11 to 14 January. Uttarayan turns the Sabarmati Riverfront into a catapult of colour, with kite masters from around the world and every rooftop in the old city flying by afternoon. It is the most joyful four days in Gujarat's year.
Jaipur Literature Festival, 14 to 18 January. The world's largest free literary festival takes over Hotel Clarks Amer for five days of authors, arguments and very large crowds. Entry is free with registration; the sessions with headline names fill early in the day.
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Lollapalooza India, Mumbai, 23 and 24 January. The festival calendar's modern pole: two days at Mahalaxmi Race Course, the biggest international line-up of the Indian year. Book through the listing; Mumbai in January is the city's best self.
Goa Carnival, 6 to 9 February. Four days of floats, music and King Momo's decree that the state should eat, drink and be merry, with parades in Panaji and in Margao, Vasco and Mapusa. It is Goa at its most Goan, just before Lent. Our listing carries a bookable way to pair it with the old city: the Latin Quarter walk through Fontainhas.
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Nagaur Fair, 12 to 15 February, and Jaisalmer Desert Festival, 18 to 20 February. Rajasthan's winter double. Nagaur is one of India's great cattle fairs, all turbans and livestock trading; Jaisalmer closes the season in the dunes at Sam, and our listing wires a luxury overnight camp for the festival nights.
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The South: literature by the sea, and Dasara
The south opens the year with words. The Kerala State School Arts Festival fills Kochi from 4 to 8 January, the Coimbatore Vizha runs 2 to 12 January, Chennai Comic Con lands on 16 and 17 January, the Kerala Literature Festival takes over Kozhikode Beach from 21 to 24 January, the Hyderabad Literary Festival follows on 22 to 24 January, and Kochi Comic Con closes the month on 30 and 31 January.
Attukal Pongala, Thiruvananthapuram, 14 to 23 February. One of the largest gatherings of women in the world: millions cook pongala, a sweet rice offering, on brick stoves lining the streets around the Attukal Bhagavathy Temple. The main Pongala day inside that window is a sight India itself finds staggering.
Mysuru Dasara, 30 September to 9 October. The southern answer to the autumn festival season: a royal festival of processions, a lit palace and the Jamboo Savari parade, in Karnataka's most elegant city, in the first cool weeks of October.
The East: the goddess and the chariot
International Kolkata Book Fair, 22 January to 3 February. The world's most visited book fair, a Bengali institution, at Boi Mela Prangan in Salt Lake. Come for the books, stay for the food stalls and the adda.
Puri Rath Yatra, 16 to 24 July. The chariot festival that gave English the word juggernaut: three vast wooden chariots carry Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra down Puri's Grand Road to the Gundicha Temple, pulled by a sea of devotees. Our listing wires a full-day tour pairing the festival with the Konark Sun Temple.
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Durga Puja, Kolkata, 5 to 10 October. If you see one Indian festival in 2027, make it this one. Kolkata builds thousands of pandals, themed temporary temples of astonishing craft, and the city stays up all night for a week walking between them. Our listing carries a bookable goddess tour for first-timers, and it is the correct way to start.
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The Northeast: the calendar nobody else has
The northeast runs its own festival year, and it is the richest argument for travelling beyond the usual circuit. Assam opens it: the Chandubi Festival on its lake from 1 to 5 January, Magh Bihu harvest feasts on 14 and 15 January, the Dehing Patkai Festival from 15 to 19 January, and Ali Ai Ligang, the Mising spring sowing festival, from 17 to 21 February. Losar, the Monpa new year, brings Tawang Monastery out in colour from 7 to 9 February, high in Arunachal.
Spring belongs to Nagaland and Mizoram: the Sekrenyi purification festival at the Naga Heritage Village on 25 February, Chapchar Kut in Aizawl on 5 March, Rongali Bihu, Assam's new year, from 14 to 20 April, the Aoleang festival of the Konyak from 1 to 6 April and Moatsu in Mokokchung from 1 to 3 May. Manipur's Shirui Lily Festival follows from 20 to 24 May, timed to its hillside flower.
Summer brings the Ambubachi Mela at Guwahati's Kamakhya Temple, 22 to 26 June, one of Hinduism's most unusual festivals; our listing wires a heritage walk of the Nilachal Hill temples. Then Dree in the Ziro valley on 5 July, Kharchi Puja in Tripura from 11 to 17 July, Pang Lhabsol in Gangtok on 15 September, and Manipur's Kut Festival on 1 November.
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Hornbill Festival, Kisama, Kohima, 1 to 10 December. The year closes with the northeast's flagship: ten days of Naga music, wrestling, food and craft at the Naga Heritage Village, the one festival in this region with a national profile, and worth building a December trip around. Guwahati is the gateway for most of the northeast; its stay list is the practical start.
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The finisher: Diwali, 29 October
The five days of Diwali run around Friday 29 October in 2027, the main Lakshmi Puja night, per the Government of India's gazetted calendar. Every city in this article lights up; Jaipur's bazaars, Varanasi's ghats and Mumbai's coastline are the famous views. Wherever you are in India that week, you are in the festival.
Plan the year the way the regions do: one big anchor a season, booked early, with the expected dates treated as pencilled until the organisers confirm. Set an India What's On alert on the festivals you are watching, and we will email you as confirmations land.
और लेख लेख पृष्ठ पर हैं, या सीधे इवेंट कैलेंडर पर जाएँ।