The Sixth Sense is India’s first large-scale immersive showcase, a one-of-a-kind, family-friendly festival where children and adults can explore stories of nature in a playful, engaging, and fully sensory way.
Building on the theme of their recently concluded eighth edition of Echoes, the team extended these ideas to shape The Sixth Sense. By exploring different subjects in the natural world, they could see which kinds of artworks and artists would bring the most meaningful experiences to the festival.
Alongside this, they ran a call for entries on their social media channels. This allowed them to discover new talent, hear fresh perspectives, and include voices we might not have found otherwise.
Their collaborations stretch across a diverse spectrum, from conservation and research led organisations such as Nuvedo, Mongabay India, A Rocha India, and ATREE, to multidisciplinary artists from around the world including Alex Xi from China, Stephen Bontly from the United States, Alisa Davydova and Sasha Kojjio from Spain, and Joshua Sam Miller and Yash Chandak from India, among many others.
In addition, more than 20 installation artists will showcase waste to art works repurposed from last edition of Echoes of Earth, giving materials a second life through creativity and thoughtful design. The showcase will also feature the work of celebrated wildlife photographers such as Sandesh Kadur, Dhritiman Mukherjee, Nikhil John, Raghuram A and others, whose photographs will bring intimate and powerful stories of the natural world into focus.
They are approaching the scale of The Sixth Sense with careful planning, thoughtful design, and a well-paced visitor journey. The festival experience will be supported by clear signage and festival information placed at key touchpoints across the venue, helping visitors navigate the space and understand the artworks without feeling overwhelmed.
The space is designed for free flowing exploration, allowing people to move through the festival at their own pace while maintaining comfortable crowd density. On weekdays, entry will be managed through limited time slots, with approximately 100 to 200 visitors allowed per hour, and a maximum of 300 visitors at any given time, creating a smooth and rotating audience flow. A dedicated help desk, supported by trained volunteers, will be available throughout the day to assist visitors, answer questions, and offer on-ground support.
Operating from 10:00 AM to 10:00 PM, the festival will function like a walk through exhibition, balancing scale with intimacy. Operationally, the festival will continue to uphold the sustainability practices pioneered by Echoes of Earth. This includes a zero plastic, zero waste policy, keeping the festival accessible and inclusive for all, and using steel tumblers instead of disposable cups. Repurposed and recycled artworks from earlier editions will continue to be showcased, including over 20 waste to art installations, along with photo and tactile exhibits, ensuring that physical assets remain in a circular loop of reuse. At the same time, digital works from this edition will be archived and adapted for future showcases, extending their life and impact.
The team foresees the Art District Bengaluru being even more impactful. They are bringing in ‘soft programming’ and partners who add value to the built environment, while providing flexible spaces for the city’s residents to bring in their own fresh activities. In many ways, they provide the ‘hardware,’ and the people of the city are the ‘life’ that flows through it. It is a classic example of public space meeting adaptive reuse philosophy.”
India has never had access to an event of this type or scale. The venue itself is breathtaking, and we have topped that by featuring cutting-edge artists using technology to create interactive audio-visual projects that are truly mind-blowing. You are stepping into an environment your body has never experienced before, one that engages you in ways that can deeply shift how you perceive the world around you. This is the essence of moving beyond the five senses to a deeper, comprehensive ‘sixth sense.’
Read the full story that first appeared in Our Bangalore dated Jan 31-Feb6, 2026 here:
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