A city festival displays the power of shared spaces

The 10-day BLR Hubba, which begins on 16 January, will have 250 events in more than 20 venues in Bengaluru

- Mahalakshmi Prabhakaran

In typical Bengaluru style, the official website of BLR Hubba serves you pithy data to showcase the sheer diversity of the city festival: 20-plus venues. 250-plus events. 12-plus diverse genres. 10 days of a citywide celebration. And the mind truly boggles looking at the monster-mix of culture that will be on offer at the festival from 16-25 January. Rock music collides with kathak, street food meets heritage walks and video art meets shadow puppetry and AI-assisted mathematics in venues large and small, new and hidden.

"The whole philosophy of programming this year was to give the widest possible choice to Bengalureans so that people can pick and choose what they want to see based on their specific area of interest," says V. Ravichandar, chief facilitator of the BLR Hubba. This diversity is also the rationale behind the festival branching into 12 sub-festivals. Each with a specific theme such as Kala Hubba (visual arts), Kantha Hubba (music), Anubhava Hubba (immersive, interactive experiences) and Makkala Hubba (for children), among others.