The Bengaluru Poetry Festival is the city’s only literary event dedicated to poetry. Organized by the not-for-profit Bengaluru Poetry Festival trust, the event has seen eight successful years and has attracted thousands of poetry lovers each year.

The eight years of the festival has seen participation from over 450 poets, musicians, lyricists and performers and the programming has included Individual performances, Panel discussions, Workshops and Readings. The festival has brought poets and poetry from across the country, with substantial regional and ethnic flavours to the audiences of Bangalore.

The festival has grown to become a beloved fixture in the literary and cultural calendar of the city, and is now being recognised across the country.

The Bengaluru Poetry Festival was conceptualized as a celebration of all things poetry. From the classical to the modern, from hymn to haiku, from ballad to ode, poetry is what makes language dance. The rhyme, the rhythm, the words all merge into the perfect pitch, so we think and ache, and remain human.

The festival was conceptualized, when the founders of the festival realized that while poetry as a form of self-expression was gaining immense popularity, and Indian poets, and poetry were increasingly being recognized the world over, there were limited opportunities available for poets within existing literary festival platforms. Thus was born the Bengaluru Poetry Festival in 2016, a platform for poets, and poetry.

An inherent love for poetry brought the core team together – to plan this festival in a spirit of gratitude and joy, as a salute to poets and the magical, magical world of their compositions.