Even if everybody else forgets, the city remembers. And, as for the city of Panjim, the month of December always comes with a reminder as the state capital yearns to welcome back the Serendipity Arts Festival (SAF), year after year.
“It takes an army to build a city, and it takes an even bigger army to build a festival. And, Panjim is a city that is meant for festivals; it is a city that invites communities to come together,” began Director, Serendipity Arts Foundation and Serendipity Arts Festival, Smriti Rajgarhia.
Gearing up for a line-up of 150 plus projects, lectures and public art interventions spread across 12 venues, the highly-anticipated 6th physical edition of the Serendipity Arts Festival is back to the happy city of Panjim, where the strength of the city and the festival merge together to create artistic magic.
Honoured that SAF has chosen Panjim to be the venue of the festival, yet again, Mayor of Panjim, Rohit Monserrate, expressed his thoughts at the press conference stating, “Panjim is extremely vibrant. There is a lot of culture here and the people are really fond of art.”
“Apart from this, festivals like SAF also act as an inspiration to the future generations of children and people who aren’t really exposed to art,” he continued. He added that on a personal note, the festival has helped him increase his knowledge and appreciation of art.
“The way that this festival brings light back to these old buildings is brilliant! The multidisciplinary approach that SAF has to all the art forms is really amazing," said Ankita Mishra, CEO, Entertainment Society of Goa (ESG).
“In the past, these art forms simply existed, but to be able to witness them and be immersed in them is a great opportunity,” she added.
Spread across Panjim, the venues of the festival are the Art Park (16 events), Excise building (11 events), Old GMC Complex (57 events), ESG complex (21 events), Santa Monica jetty (1 event), old PWD complex (six events), Multi-level parking (2 events), Samba Square, The Arena at Nagalli Hills Ground (16 events), Promenade, Dinanath Mangeshkar Kala Mandir (8 events), Azad Maidan (1 event) and more.
“Panjim has been synonymous with SAF for years now,” began Sanjit Rodrigues, CEO, Imagine Panaji Smart City Development Ltd. “The festival has grown and so has the city’s liking for it. The festival and the citizen connect is one thing that I look forward to seeing, and have already seen in the past few years.”
He went on to explain how the footfalls of the festival speak for itself having increased multifold over the years and that SAF adds another dimension to the city on an intellectual, positive and multi-dimensional approach, which also adds to the culture and skin of the city.
“The festival has also opened hidden parts of Panjim to the public and has made viewing the city more interesting, while focusing on the art, culture, architecture, heritage and bringing out the hidden talent of Panjim,” he concluded.
With more than 300 artists conducting 150 plus projects (not including workshops and talks), of which 15 are special projects and four are Serendipity Art Foundation initiatives, all projects are curated by domain experts and fall under six broader disciplines, namely dance, visual arts, music, culinary arts, theater and craft.