- A community-driven festival celebrating stories of and from the Himalayas 3rd to 9th December 2026, Travancore Palace, New Delhi
- Tickets live at BookMyShow.com
New Delhi, September 23, 2026: Royal Enfield Social Mission presents the third edition of Journeying Across the Himalayas, from 3rd to 9th December 2026 at Travancore Palace, New Delhi. Co-curated alongside Himalayan communities, artists, and cultural practitioners, this week-long festival offers over 100 Himalayan experiences designed to engage art enthusiasts, music & food lovers, and families. The line-up features 25+ installations and exhibitions, 20+ live musical performances, 20+ culinary experiences, 50+ interactive workshops and conversations, film screenings, and curated retail finds at the Himalayan Bazaar.
“Journeying Across the Himalayas celebrates Himalayan communities and their lived experiences, which are continuously shaped by a changing context,” says Bidisha Dey, Executive Director, Eicher Group Foundation. “Our curatorial theme for this edition, ‘Becoming’, speaks to this evolution by holding space for voices deeply rooted in the mountains that are actively redefining themselves within a contemporary world. Through art, craft, films, food, music, and material culture, the festival is deliberately participatory, placing community members at center stage. More than an annual gathering, it is a window into our year-round work across culture, conservation, and materiality, grounding Royal Enfield Social Mission’s long-standing commitment to 100 Himalayan communities.”
The festival features immersive visual stories and interactive installations created by renowned artists and curators alongside the communities. Some of the highlights include Before Time by Gautam Pandey (Riverbank Studios), a visual journey into Ladakh’s ancient petroglyphs; Pahaadi – Colour, Drawn from the Himalaya, a natural dye installation by Himanshu Shani (11:11), where visitors’ footsteps finish the artwork by becoming part of it. The Unquiet Orchard by Vibha Galhotra, brings together documentation made twelve years ago by the artist with the present, examining traditional Himalayan beekeeping and modern apiculture. Cloudbursts by Ravi Agarwal with Sukanya Deb and Soumya Yadav (Shared Ecologies) showcases artistic and living practices that engage with community-based knowledge from the region as stories making visible the limits of our ecosystems. Visitors of all ages can join workshops, including manga sketching with Aparna Chaurasia (Stories We Carry) and everyday craft design with Anuj Sharma (Button Masala). The schedule includes conversations, talks, spotlight sessions with practitioners, community members, and subject-matter experts centered on community stories, living heritage, conservation and materiality; alongside daily film screenings curated by the Dharamshala International Film Festival (DIFF) as part of its ‘DIFF On the Road’ program.
The festival also brings music, food, and craft of the Eastern and Western Himalayas to the capital. The music lineup offers a rich journey across the region featuring Arunachal’s indie-folk favorite Taba Chake, Himachali rock icon Raman Negi, and Kashmiri folk-pop star Aabha Hanjura. Additionally, this year features the inaugural performing arts programme in partnership with Oddbird Foundation. Designed to bring Himalayan performers to urban audiences, the residency bridges traditional heritage with contemporary contexts, culminating in live final showcases across the performance lineup.
At Chouka, the food courtyard, visitors can indulge in the regional flavours from across the Himalayas, while the culinary experiences includes MOMO: Migration, Identity & Memory In Kalimpong by Ishita Dewan, Assam Tea tasting by Dona Aiedeau, A Taste of the Himalayas by Sikkim’s Temi Tea, A Living
Bridge of Flavours by Rynsan Shillong led by Hammarsing L Kharhmar, exploring Naga cuisine Beyond Meat by Chef Aketoli Zhimomi, and interactive Himachali spreads by The Community Thali Project among others. Rounding out the experience, the Himalayan Bazaar, curated by Puneeta Chadda Khanna, brings together 45+ Himalayan brands and craft collectives including 10 collection launches exclusively at the festival.
“We want visitors to leave with a deeper connection to the Himalayas and see how their choices impact this fragile ecosystem, inspiring us all to leave every place better,” adds Bidisha who serves as the Festival Director, Journeying Across The Himalayas.
Experiences at Journeying Across the Himalayas 2026
This year’s curatorial theme, Becoming, implies transformation, underlining the shift that the Himalayas undergo with respect to climate, terrain, migration and innovation. Anchoring this constant state of change, the theme explores how the stories shift, just like the Himalayas, finding new tellers, listeners, and meaning through collective action, and shared responsibility.
Installations and Exhibitions
The Unquiet Orchard by Vibha Galhotra – Bringing together documentation made twelve years ago by the artist with the present, the exhibit will examine traditional beekeeping and modern apiculture practices within the domestic life of Himalayan apple-growing region and a contemporary agricultural system in which pollination is increasingly managed, transported and commodified.
Cloudburst By Ravi Agarwal with Sukanya Deb and Soumya Yadav for Shared Ecologies, a program by the Shyama Foundation – In systems governed by statistics and data, the cloudburst occurs as a climate anomaly. As a phenomenon, it cannot be predicted, only detected, and has become more frequent with the climate crisis. We can see the condition of alienation from nature as the cause of environmental deterioration as it reaches tipping points. The Himalayas have shaped and sustained the Indian subcontinent and its people, and today, as a fragile ecosystem, its inhabited communities are the first responders and immediately affected in this crisis. In this exhibition, Shared Ecologies brings together stories of Fellows and Grantees from the Royal Enfield Social Mission’s initiatives in the region, where we foreground the lens of interrelationality, which includes human and more-than-human beings.
Through reading artistic and community-based living practices, we seek to bring forth vital responses to this metaphorical cloudburst, where in a moment of confrontation, the limits of ecosystem survival are made visible.
Echoes by sā Ladakh Biennale, in collaboration with Royal Enfield Social Mission – Showcasing the works of the ‘Above 3000M’ fellowship artists, bringing together their artworks, the impact of their projects and a conversation on what happens to site-specific practices after the Biennale.
Before Time by Gautam Pandey (Riverbank Studios), a sculptural installation featuring a meditative loop film moving between the ancient petroglyphs of Ladakh.
Into the Himalayas by Gautam Pandey, a Virtual Reality experience of the Snow Leopard’s habitat in the high-altitude Himalayas.
The Gaddi Suitcase by Gunehr Sound Museum, a multi-sensory installation showcasing the nomadic and pastoral lives of the Gaddi and Bhangali tribes through sound, miniatures and Kangri folk music from Himachal Pradesh.
How Far Does A Home Reach? by Prolog Collective turning numerous children’s own maps, objects, and stories from across the Himalayas into a portrait of what home means when the ground beneath it is changing.
The Himalayan Fellowship Showcase, the culminating exhibition of the third cohort of the Foundation for Indian Contemporary Art (FICA) x Royal Enfield Social Mission’s The Himalayan Fellowship for Creative Practitioners (2025–26), showcases works by 10 fellows, shaped by the lived contexts of the Himalayan region.
Highlights of Journeying Across the Himalayas 2025
The previous edition brought together 11,000+ visitors and 50+ Himalayan communities at the festival. Key highlights included a light-and-fabric recreation of Meghalaya’s living root bridges, a live Sand Mandala by monks of Namgyal Monastery in Dharamshala, and a historic performance bringing Northeast music pioneers Lou Majaw, Rudy Wallang, and Joi Barua to the same stage for the first time. Visitors especially enjoyed the food at Chouka and taking home local crafts from the Himalayan Bazaar.
Festival Aftermovie: Relive the magic of last year’s festival through our highlight film.
Stay Updated: Sign up here to receive exclusive updates and early announcements.
Tickets for Journeying Across the Himalayas 2026 are now live on BookMyShow.com
