Written by Tanisha Cardozo || Team Allycaral
The Serendipity Arts Festival returns to Panaji this December for its tenth edition, reaffirming its long-standing commitment to making art accessible to all. As South Asia’s largest multi-disciplinary arts festival, SAF has grown into a dynamic platform where artistic practices, lived experiences, and community relationships converge.
This year, the festival once again transforms Goa’s riverfront and public spaces into vibrant zones of creativity, connection and inclusion from December 12 to 21. Throughout the year, the festival travelled through Birmingham, Ahmedabad, Delhi, Varanasi, Chennai, Gurugram, Dubai and Paris, offering previews of its tenth edition and engaging new audiences beyond Goa. Accessibility has been at the foundation of the festival since its inception, and in 2025 it continues to be central to the programming curated by poet and artist Salil Chaturvedi.
At the Access Village in the Old GMC Complex, sensorial, interactive and community-centred projects welcome visitors with diverse needs to experience art in ways that honour dignity and participation.
This vision is echoed by founder and patron Sunil Kant Munjal, who emphasises that culture must belong to everyone and that no visitor should ever feel excluded. The festival brings a range of unique experiences such as Scented Stories, a fragrance-based storytelling workshop; Hand/Eye, which explores touch as a mode of visual perception; and Breath + Sound Immersion, which blends meditative breathwork with sound healing.
Spaces like Studio Me and the Sensory Room provide open, calming environments for neurodiverse and neurotypical visitors to decompress and create. Curated by Tanul Vikamshi, the Paper to Sculpture workshop focuses on recycled materials and collaborative processes, while Nature’s Symphony offers blind audiences an auditory and tactile introduction to urban birdlife at Art Park and the Access Village.
The Gallery presents Therefore I Am, showcasing seven artists whose practices draw deeply from lived disability. Performances include Silent Rhythms, featuring India’s first group of deaf performers led by Dr. Alim Chandani, and Poems on the Move 2.0, curated by Thukral & Tagra with Chaturvedi, bringing live poetry readings into shuttle cabs across the city.
At The Lab, workshops by Siddhant Shah, Access for All, Rohan Marathe and Shivani Dhillon invite children, seniors and neurodiverse participants into sessions such as Dear Normal, Sound of Silence, Sensory Storytelling and Panchtantra Stories. Special projects further expand the accessibility commitment, including Cinema for Every Sense with audio-described Hindi films and a Pilates Flow Performance by Kaizen Wellness.
SAF Director Smriti Rajgarhia reflects on the decade-long journey, emphasising that accessibility has been a core priority long before it became a larger cultural conversation and remains central to the festival’s mission. Co-patron Shefali Munjal echoes this, noting that the festival has grown into a movement that fosters creative and social connection while supporting artists and cultural heritage.
As registrations for the 2025 edition go live, audiences are invited to secure their passes and explore a growing programme of exhibitions, performances, workshops and immersive encounters designed to make art a space for everyone.
