MUMBAI: Magnetic Fields has over the past decade come to be globally recognised as one of the most exciting contemporary art and music festivals around the world. Alongside a programme of diverse, future-facing sounds from India and around the world, collaborations with other pioneering institutions and artists also feature as the highlights of each edition.

For its 10^th edition, the Rajasthan-based festival welcomes a stimulating array of installations, workshops and commissions to celebrate the milestone.

Refuge Worldwide

The festival collaborates with Berlin-based community radio Refuge Worldwide for a day of phantastic listening sessions, soul-stirring stories, and conversations with cultural movers and shakers bring us into the heart of music culture. Titled ‘In Tune’, the one-day session will see the Peacock Club transform into a sanctuary of sound and stories that will include an ambient set by Bristol-based DJ and producer CCL, and an insight into collecting records with crate diggers Nishant Mittal aka Digging in India and Moe, and a lot more.

Refuge Worldwide will also take over the Jameson Connects Underground in the dungeon on Saturday night with a lineup consisting of British-Nigerian DJ, Richard Akingbehin – who is also the co-founder of Refuge Worldwide – and curator, radio host and globetrotting DJ, Moe.

Beatmaker Kartik has a knack for painting pictures through melodies. With over 30 beat tapes since 2020, Kartik fuses classic hip-hop elements with sounds that reflect his heritage and contemporary life in India, and makes his Magnetic Fields debut on the Jameson Connects South Stage with a live set.

New Delhi-based DJ and producer Lush Lata’s sets glide effortlessly through contemporary hip-hop, alluring bass lines, trap, afrobeat, tribal house, electronic dance music, and drum and bass, and she brings her bag of tunes to the BUDx North Stage this December.

Additions to the lineup include the return of the reimagined and disco-inspired space, Cosmic Disco Bar that will see appearances by a whole host of DJs including Berlin-based DJ and longtime Tresor and Panorama Bar resident, Dave DK, an extended set by crate diggers The Ghost, and a lineup curated by Dynamite Disco Club calling on Japanese DJ Daisuke Miyamoto, Bangkok-based DJ Pam Anantr, DDC-founder Stalvart John and more secret sets.

Sightlines Lab in collaboration with EyeMyth Festival

Sightlines Lab is a creative playground where digital artists Parizad D, Miss.Kotton (Caroline Stedman Mishra), Vinay Khare, MYLES, Alap Parikh, Optikbloom, echofloat bring indigenous arts practices and sensibilities-inspired visual and digital creative expression at the festival.

Over the week leading up to Magnetic Fields, some of the country's most forward-thinking digital artists will work within the palace to transform spaces within the festival. The resident artists will also collaborate with the festival commission, Fieldlines to take the idea of residency, collaboration and performance to the next level, demonstrating a unity and confluence of music, heritage, modernity and technology.

A multi-disciplinary space that transforms from a storytelling tent in the day into a disco ball-lit dancefloor, The Peacock Club will host Magnetic Words on Saturday afternoon, and the now-legendary Paradise at The Peacock Club on Sunday night with the Dragalactiq crew and DJ Voices.

Magnetic Words

Curated by Raji Kaur Aujla – president of Willendorf Cultural Planning and editor of digital publication, Newest Magazine – the theme for Magnetic Words 2024 is Reflexive Futures.

Reflexive Futures envisions an India where cultural narratives are reimagined as collective, experimental terrains for interwoven queer, fluid, and feminist identities to shape the future. This theme invites attendees on a four-hour journey where art, conversation, and ceremony coalesce into a shared meditation on the interconnectedness of life and the stories we tell. Each chapter of this curated showcase explores a distinct theme yet remains woven into the tapestry of reflexivity and futurity — a speculation on how we shape, and are shaped by, the world around us.

Speakers for 2024 include Imdad Barbhuyan, a New Delhi-based visual artist Imdad Barbhuyan creates atmospheric and intimate scenes by bringing out the poetry in the ordinary and mundane; Aakarsh Choubey and Ridima Khandelwal, co-founders Nada, a ceramic studio inspired by the reverberation of sound that exists within everything as “universal pulse of life”; Kenneth Lobo, an experienced culture manager, journalist and arts and culture entrepreneur with over 15 years of experience in the creative industries; Kripi Mandov, a psychologist and psychotherapist with a decade of experience working in international, intersectional and integrative mental health programs; creative director, writer and media entrepreneur Mandovi Menon; NBNW co-founder and fashion designer Amrit Khanna, and Shwetal Ashvin Patel, a writer and researcher practising at the intersection of visual art, exhibition-making and development studies.

Dragalactiq at Magnetic Fields 2024

Theatrical drag performances by Dragalactiq have become a much-anticipated feature at Magnetic Fields, and for the 10^th edition, the ensemble that includes nine queer performing artists – four drag queens, two voguers, an aerialist and two performers – and will set up a craft-based tech and textile installation in the palace on Saturday, and join DJ Voices on Sunday night for a glamorous finale in The Peacock Club.

The installation ‘Dragalactiq Dominion’ re-imagines queer mythology within a fictitious queer realm, brought to life with surreal visuals and eccentric drag performances. A multifarious group of performing artists take the stage as gender-fluid cosmic creatures – four drag queens, two voguers, a shiny slithering snake, a flying mutant and a giant evil baby, joining forces to tell a tale unheard of before.

Puqaar

Over the years, Puqaar has introduced Fielders to the rich tapestry of traditional art forms from Magnetic Fields’ home grounds of Rajasthan and beyond. This year, we continue the tradition with a diverse array of artists at the Puqaar Stage, exploring folk styles alongside semi-classical music.

Adding a modern twist on Friday, the Global Groove Collective – led by electronic artist Nuqta – merges traditional folk with electronic rhythms, featuring the guitar loops of Hvetter Omry, sarangi artistry from Sangeet Mishra, Shivani Kallianpur’s classical vocals, and percussion from Umesh Warbhuwan to deliver a fusion of heritage and contemporary sounds.

O Gaanewali, the Saturday showcase is a performance of Hindustani semi-classical music (including thumri, dadra, ghazal) interspersed with stories of the women performers who contributed immensely to the evolution and growth of these forms. Vocalists Avanti and Rutuja Lad, Nusrat Apoorv (harmonium), Akshay Jadhav (tabla), and Ejaz Hussain (sarangi) come together with stories, ghazal, and dadra for an enchanting performance that revives the legacy of the tawaifs and gaanewalis.

In a first, Puqaar now heads to the desert on Sunday night with a very special showcase of qawwals from Dargah Sharif Ajmer.

Magnetic Sanctuary

Immerse yourself in weekend bliss at the Magnetic Sanctuary — an oasis designed to help you decompress and recharge amid the festival energy. This decompression zone invites you to step away from the hustle and embrace a world of meditative vibes, sensory experiences, and transformative workshops.

Begin your day with a sunrise meditation and hatha yoga, unwind with yoga nidra and soundbaths, or deepen your connection through breathwork activation and somatic embodied movement. Treat yourself to Thai massage, explore Nada yoga, and dive into the journey within with cacao ceremony + breathwork.

Immersive installations and workshops at #MagFields2023

SHED

A festival mainstay with their ancient handcrafted wooden games, SHED returns to the festival’s 10th edition with an elaborate hand-built playground that draws upon the richness of Alsisar. Fabricated out of natural, indigenous, found materials, this expansive playground becomes a playful library of game-sets, magical playthings and more.

Compass Presents

Occupying the space between cinema curation, art, event production and interactive theatre, Compass Presents has been creating mixed-artform events and shows since 2006. From a playful telephone installation that connects festival goers, to a confessional booth for spicy secrets and reflections, or postal services for the future, Compass brings unique experiences and memorable encounters to Magnetic Fields this year, cultivating intimacy with their audiences along with their trademark dollop of fun.

Svaram Sound Experience Presents: Sound Oasis

Amidst the high intensity and scorching heat of the desert festival, an oasis emerges, offering a moment of pause to the sonic journeymen. At the heart of the palace is a sacred pyramid, a temple, that hums an inviting tune, beckoning a curious hand. The Sound Oasis is an interactive sound installation, inviting the audience to deepen listening awareness.

Scentscape by Havah

Using a range of rare and precious natural aromatics, Havah returns to the festival in enhanced form with even more sensory experiences. In addition to perfumery workshops, and the immersive scentscape experience in the Palace courtyard, Havah will also be working to make scent an integral part of the festival experience. They will be using customised, complex fragrances throughout festival spaces to augment the mood of different spaces and mark transitions in the day, and a very special olfactory experience to accompany the Puqaar Stage.

Strangers Project

Strangers Project is a celebration of the stories we’re surrounded with – both from the strangers we share our space with every day, and our own stories we carry. A safe, judgement-free space where people can discover stories to reflect, rejoice, heal and connect through words, and if you choose, handwrite your own story on the spot and share it with the world.

Block Printing with Khatritex

Delve into the heritage of Sanganeri block printing, a time-honoured method in textile and paper art. Experience the simplicity of a carved wooden block coated in ink, leaving behind rhythmic patterns on surfaces. Join us in this workshop hosted by Khatritex in exploring this enduring technique, where tradition gently meets creativity.

Live Heritage Futurism

Drawing inspiration from the heritage of Alsisar Mahal, artist Ria Panjabi will be using Midjourney as a creative tool to envision a live painting of a woman who might have lived there but reimagined as if she existed far into the future.

OBJECT, in print

In an age where print and cloth face an existential crisis, where screens and machines threaten to rewrite traditional forms of production, Journey of Objects presents an installation that pays tribute to our rich history. It features a newspaper printed on khadi and embroidered using the finest techniques; the bamboo and copper frame introduces mixed materials while the handmade basket carries an assortment of objects developed by our design team in close collaboration with artisans from across India.

Stargazing with Astroden

Embark on a grand ride to the heavenly cosmos as you witness a stargazing experience like never before with Astroden’s state-of-the-art 10-inch Dobsonian telescopes hosted by professional astronomers and educators.