20 events to look forward to in 2025

Connoisseurs across North India can look forward to various art, culture, literary, music and many other related events.

• The national winter carnival at Manali, being held since 1970’s, usually happens in the first week of January but will start on January 20 this year. The carnival has many attractions for the tourists, including winter games, winter queen contest, street plays and folk dances.
• The Punjab Arts Council will celebrate Surjit Patar’s birth anniversary on January 14 at Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar. The celebrations will include poetry performances by Manraj Patar, Upkar Singh, Anujot and qawali by Qawal Neele Khan.
• The National School of Drama, New Delhi, will host the 24th International Theatre Festival of India, Bharat Rang Mahotsav, from January 28 to February 16, 2025. The festival will have 65 plays from various Indian states and 10 plays from other countries, including Austria, Germany, Poland, Spain, Sri Lanka and Taiwan.
• Bookworms should mark their calendars from January 30 to February 3, 2025, for the Jaipur Literature Festival, a must-attend event for any literature buff. The festival will bring together well-known voices from the fields of literature, politics, science, and the arts.
• The Punjab Arts Council will host Dr MS Randhawa Art and Literature Festival from February 2 onwards, at Punjab Kala Bhavan, Chandigarh. It will feature a theatre performance, besides other activities.
• Music lovers in Haryana and Punjab will get a chance to hear popular singer Arijit Singh live in concerts at Gurugram on February 2, followed by another one in Chandigarh on February 16.

• The India Art Fair, a major platform for modern and contemporary art from South Asia, will take place from February 6-9, 2025, in New Delhi. The fair will feature talks, workshops and artist projects.
• Amritsar will host a ten-day National Theatre festival, Rangmanch Utsav. The festival will be co-hosted by the National School of Drama, Manch Rangmanch and the Punjab Sangeet Natak Akademi.  Curated by noted theatre person Kewal Dhaliwal, it brings the best of Indian regional theatre from across the country. The winter edition is in February while the summer edition takes place in July.
• An annual feature for over three decades, the forthcoming 38th edition of the Surajkund International Crafts Mela (Fair) will be held from February 7 to 23, 2025, at Surajkund in Faridabad, Haryana. The largest crafts fair in the world will bring together folk artistes for cultural evenings as well as handicrafts, handlooms, heritage crafts involving traditional skills and ethnic cuisines from all over the world.
• English superstar Ed Sheeran has massively increased his fan-base in India after he recently sang Diljit Dosanjh's hit track, ‘Lover’ in Punjabi. During his multi-city musical tour in India, he will perform at Leisure Valley Ground, Gurgaon, on February 15.
• The Sacred Amritsar, a festival of music and poetry, will celebrate mystic-poets and brings musical performances, discourse, specially-curated heritage experiences and heritage tours, in Amritsar from February 21 to 23.
• Salman Khan will continue with his Eid tradition. His eidi to his fans will be “Sikandar’, scheduled for release on Eid on March 30.

• Haryana Urdu Sahit Akademi will hold a national Urdu Mushaira in March featuring 11 to 12 poets from across India, besides more mushairas in September.
• The KL Saigal YUVAA Rang Utsav will be held from April 7 to April 13 in Jalandhar. The annual theatre festival, an encouraging platform for various regional theatre groups, marks famous singer-actor’s birth anniversary who was born in Jalandhar. Another month-long weekend theatre festival will be held from mid-November to December.
• Shimla will host its famous International summer festival in mid-June, an annual attraction for both locals and tourists. The festival showcases Himachali culture through its folk artistes and, of course, its cuisine collectively called ‘Dham’.

• The International Minjar Fair, symbolising the blossoming of maize, will be held in Chamba during the last week of July. The centuries-old fair is called ‘Minjar,’ named after a silk tassel symbolising a corn stalk, worn by locals during the festivities. The week-long celebrations feature cultural performances, sports events and traditional rituals.
• The international Lavi Fair is one of the oldest fairs of Himachal famous for promoting trade and other activities with Tibet for centuries. The four-day fair is held in November at Rampur town in Shimla district. The fair dates back to the 17th century when Raja Kehari Singh of Rampur Bushahr state signed a treaty to promote trade with Tibet. The main attraction during the fair every year is the sale and purchase of Chamurthi horses, an endangered species known as the “ship of the cold desert”.  The fair also showcases unique crafts, woollen textiles and dry fruits, besides hosting cultural activities.
• Harivallabh Sangeet Sammelan, held every year at Devi Talab Mandir complex, Jalandhar, will mark its 150th anniversary this year. Musical legends feel honoured to perform at this renowned classical musical festival that will be start on December 26 and end on December 28.

• Various OTT platforms have also lined up a bonanza for viewers. Much awaited ‘Paatal Lok’ Season 2, ‘The Family Man’ Season 3, Boman Irani’s debut directorial venture, ‘The Mehta Boys’ and much more is lined up.
• The sixth edition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale (KMB) will start from December 12 and carry on till March 31, 2026. Artist Nikhil Chopra and his team HH Art Spaces will be the curators of the upcoming edition.