Mumbai's #HGStreet Festival is back and here's why you need to attend it

HGStreet Festival 2023

It started in 2018 as a sneaker and street culture festival. But in 2023, the Homegrown's #HGStreet Festival 2023 is all grown up.

It's got every cool thing you can imagine under one roof - with one defining factor that makes it all a bit cooler - that everything is about local talent and innovations.

As Varsha Patra, CEO, Co-Founder, Homegrown, tells us, "#HGStreet Festival is a celebration of the next generation of contemporary Indian culture and creativity."

She adds that the intent was to break away from traditional formats in India, "with the hope to create a distinct festival experience that sits at the intersection of varied passion points and interests - not confined and not defined".

You can immerse yourself in some sneaker art at the festival

This includes music, art and design, fashion, film and photography, technology, sneakers and street culture, urban sports, education, culinary, innovation, and more. It will also become a great place to network with like-minded people and chat about art and culture.

We ask Patra to tell us the main highlights of the two-day festival, and this is what we came up with.

30+ art, design & photography artists and exhibitions: Experience next-generation physical and unique digital artforms like 3D art, AI art, illustrations, Urban Art, Photography, Type Art and tattoo ink. If art, creativity, and immersive installations are what interests you, take some time to browse through the exhibits and learn about the techniques and materials used to create these beautiful pieces. Attendees will get to meet and experience diverse works by Anirudh Mehta, Sumit Roy, Kimya Gandhi, Hunar Daga, Reshidev RK, Prateek Arora, Ek Type, Sawant Sanskar among many others.

Varsha Patra, Kimya Gandhi, Reshidev Rk and Lojal

40+ next-gen South Asian musicians: The festival will have four grand stages with a focus on Indian and South Asian next-gen artists; the two days will cover English and regional hip-hop, live electronica, singer songwriters and DJs traversing disco, house, hip hop, techno x and more. Manipuri artist Lojal will be performing, and so will Sindhi Curry, SickFlip, Paloma, DJ Proof and Yashraj, amongst many others.

Unique workshops and panels: With topics such as - Building a global streetwear brand with Daily Paper, India's creative and cultural economy 2030, The democratisation of filmmaking, for or against AI and ChatGPT - there is a lot to take in. One can also select and attend various creative workshops like mixology, screen-printing, music-making, and tattoo design. Panelists include filmmaker Shakun Batra and founder of Daily paper, Abderrahmane Trabsini.

WHEN: On March 18 and 19
WHERE: At Richardson and Cruddas Mills, Byculla
Tickets: Rs 900 onwards
To book: insider.in