The Mahindra Sanatkada Lucknow Festival is an annual arts and culture festival rooted in the traditions of Awadh. Held over five days each January, the festival brings together classical music, dance, craft, food, heritage walks, oral history sessions, and conversations about the living culture of the region.
These photographs come from several editions of the festival: performances, craft demonstrations, walks through old neighbourhoods, conversations in corners, the long process of putting it all together each year.
A festival like this is more than its programme. The negotiations, the arguments about what belongs, the things that almost did not happen, the people who showed up anyway. I have been part of it for nine years and the camera was present across different editions, in different roles.
This is what accumulated over the years.
