Building Foundations: Youth-focused Festivals

About the event

India has the world’s largest population of young people under the age of 24 years (24 crores), and this session witnessed an exciting discussion on this vibrant community and festivals by them, for them.

It put the spotlight on the youth-focused festivals of the country — how they do it, why they do it and what keeps them running. Various aspects that play a huge role in organising a successful festival, such as planning, fundraising, curation, production, management and more were discussed.

The panel featured Jay Ahya, Founder the Experience Co and F of X festival; Toral Shah, Founder, Thespo and Partner QTP; Kaptin Barrett, Head of Music, Boomtown; and Priyal Agarwal, Student Organiser at Waves BITS Goa.

Rashmi Dhanwani, Founder of the Art X Company, moderated the session with Aniket Chatterjee and Radhika Zaveri, Student Organisers of Malhar, the annual cultural festival of St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai. The panellists shared insights on how they organise these mega events, the team-building exercises that aid in successful transitions, the impact of COVID-19 and what lies ahead for each of their festivals.

The session was interpreted live in Hindi and saw active participation from the attendees who had several questions for the panellists.

The event was held as part of the British Council’s Festival Connections, in partnership with Arts and Culture Resources India (an Art X Company initiative), annual expertise, knowledge and networking programme between India and the UK.