Goa’s Serendipity Arts Festival marks 10 years with bold new ideas on culture, climate and food

The Legends of Khasak, curated by Anuradha Kapur, image courtesy Raneesh Raveendran

There are very few spaces in India [like the Serendipity Arts Festival] that explore food as closely tied to anthropology, history or identity," chef Thomas Zacharias tells us. "At a lot of big art festivals, food is an afterthought, just there for sustenance or entertainment, and not explored as a theme."

Zacharias is one of the curators of the culinary arts programme at the 10th edition of the festival starting in Goa this week, and has conceptualised What Does Loss Taste Like?, a speculative journey set in the year 2100. "This year, especially with the increasing sense of urgency around climate and loss, I wanted to conceive the project around what we stand to lose as a society if things go the way they're going. It's clear how we are losing a lot of things related to food and food culture, whether it is culinary traditions, biodiversity, nutrition or food identity. This project explores that by making people feel tangibly what loss would feel like in the future. The brief that I put together was ‘Think Black Mirror meets Indian Food in the year 2100'."

Ramman, A Unique Folk Experience

The project stems from ideas central to The Locavore, a platform Zacharias founded in 2022, focused on culinary knowledge and climate-resilient, diverse food practices, and brings together Immerse, an immersive experience production company, and theatre company QTP India. The experience will unfold across immersive soundscapes, controlled lighting, scent cues and scripted performances.

For artist duo Thukral & Tagra, this is the second year of their involvement with the festival, and Multiplay 02: Soft Systems - an exhibition centred on transforming art into an arena of play, inviting visitors to engage in activities like modelling clay portraits in the dark or listening to the sounds of trees and birds - continues what the curators started last year. "It's looking at how we think about the space between the audiences, artistic practice and the host. We are interested in the invitation part of the exercise," shares Sumir Tagra.

(from left) Veeranganakumari Solanki , Jiten Thukral and Sumir Tagra

The Visual Arts programming which stretches across mediums and scales also includes Veerangana Solanki's Barge, a project that revives the barge, a vessel at Old Goa Jetty, and features four artists working with sound, space, illusion and video. "The barge holds a sort of cavity or space that is floating, signifying the idea of absence and presence," Solanki tells us. "Barge also plays on this idea of a ‘barging in' which is what imagination does. It comes in unexpectedly."

The festival's performing arts programming is similarly diverse, spanning dance, theatre and music. Tabla player Aneesh Pradhan tells us of co-curating projects with Shubha Mudgal, like Clay Play which brings together a collection of percussion instruments primarily made from clay, and Serendipity Soundscapes which explores love through its many hues reflected in the musical cultures of Gujarat and Bengal. Pradhan and Mudgal have also curated Parsi Gayan Uttejak Mandali, which revives the first jalsa held on April 28, 1871, of the Mandali, one of Mumbai's earliest formal music clubs established in the city for the study and performance of Hindustani music.

Aneesh Pradhan

"I began my association with the festival in 2017 when I curated a single project called Dhamaal, which focused on diverse drumming traditions from India," recalls Pradhan. "I believe this association has been unique because it has evolved over a long period, allowing me to experiment with multiple ideas related to music. I hope the festival continues to grow in the coming years and travels more across the country and abroad too."

All the curators we spoke to have had enduring relationships with the festival, and commend its creation of a space where artists and curators can push boundaries and experiment. Solanki explains that there is an uncertainty when it comes to creating new things which needs to be recognised. "Very often when we go into art spaces, everything is just absolutely perfect and we don't allow for that space of uncertainty to exist. That's something that Serendipity has allowed."

Thomas Zacharias

Tagra points to the need for more open festivals like SAF. "They're trying to do something very generous by opening Goa from its cultural standpoint, and also inviting all kinds of people. They are restoring buildings which can also be used for other activities throughout the year. It's quite beautiful that it has changed the way we see cities behaving."

WHEN: December 12 to 21, 2025
WHERE: Panaji, Goa