Bengaluru’s June Pride celebrations or the Karnataka Swabhimana Habba 2026 (Pride March) is set to gather momentum with Preetiya Habba 2026, a day-long festival dedicated to culture, creativity and community one day before the Pride March. The event, an integral part of the Karnataka Swabhimana Habba 2026 aims to create a vibrant space where joy, resilience and collective belonging take centre stage.
This year’s edition brings an impressive line-up of LGBTQIA+ artistes, performers and changemakers — reflecting the diversity of voices that continue to shape India’s queer cultural landscape. Alongside live music, visitors can look forward to performances by drag artistes, poets and spoken-word practitioners — highlighting the many forms through which queer stories and experiences are expressed.
Beyond the stage, the festival will also host a lively flea market showcasing queer-owned businesses, independent creators and entrepreneurs. From Pride merchandise and handcrafted products to communityled initiatives, the marketplace offers an opportunity to engage directly with local talent and enterprise. Complementing the experience will be organic and sustainably sourced food from the Circus Canteen, known for its commitment to conscious, locally inspired cuisine.
Among the featured performers is Mr Gay India 2025 32-year-old Vrujen Andhare, who will present a special sitar recital that combines the timeless appeal of classical music with the visibility and representation of queer identities. Ahead of the performance, we speak to the artiste, who used to call the city home (and lives in Goa) to learn what the festival goers can expect from the event and his recital.
What can the audience expect from your performance, this Saturday?
Audiences can expect a performance that sits somewhere between a concert, a poetry reading and a journey inward. I’ll be weaving together three classical ragas, allowing them to flow into one another while incorporating western beats, synth textures and live looping to create a trance-like sonic landscape. Alongside the music, I’ll be sharing original poetry that reflects on identity, belonging and the profound impact that supportive parents, mentors and chosen family can have on our lives. This performance is about how love, acceptance and encouragement can transform us into the artistes and human beings we were always meant to become. It honours tradition while also embracing experimentation and new forms of expression.
What does this performance and event mean to you as a musician and queer artiste?
Performing at Preetiya Habba 2026 feels particularly special because it creates space not just for performance, but for conversation, visibility and community-building. I’m honoured to be part of a lineup of artistes who are sharing their stories and art during Pride Month. This performance feels deeply personal. I came into adulthood while studying Earth and Environmental Sciences at the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru. After graduating, I took a sabbatical and chose a very different path; one that led me deeper into sitar, poetry, event curation and creative expression, much of which unfolded in Goa. Nearly a decade later, returning to Bengaluru to perform feels beautifully serendipitous. In many ways, I am returning to a city that shaped me, but this time as the artiste I eventually became. As a queer musician, the opportunity carries even more meaning. India has many incredibly talented queer musicians, but not all of them are able to be fully visible because of the stigma that still exists within parts of the music and entertainment industries. I feel proud to stand openly in both the classical and contemporary worlds, bringing my own fusion of sitar, poetry and electronic influences into the space and, if I may say so, funk it up a little.
Tell us a bit about how you are preparing for this performance?
This performance carries a lot of emotional significance for me, so rather than forcing a particular outcome, I’m allowing the process itself to guide me. I’ve been composing original music and writing new poetry inspired by whatever emotions arise during preparation. Some performances are simply gigs. This one feels more like a conversation with my younger self, with Bengaluru and with the community that will gather there.
The performance coincides with Pride Month. How are you celebrating that through your music?
The performance itself is a celebration of Pride. The music challenges assumptions about what classical music can be. It steps outside traditional boundaries while maintaining deep respect for the traditions from which it comes. The poetry does something similar by exploring identity, vulnerability and self-expression. To me, Pride has always been about expanding possibilities; creating space for people to exist beyond boxes and labels. My music attempts to do exactly that. I strongly believe music plays a vital role in movements like these because music is inherently borderless. It transcends language, gender, identity and ideology. While we often try to categorise music into genres and neat boxes, the most powerful music inevitably escapes them. This message has become even more personal for me over the last year. Following a heart attack and subsequent recovery, I have been forced to re-evaluate what truly matters. The experience brought me back to myself, towards health, sobriety, mindful living and a renewed commitment to following my heart. As the current Mr Gay World India 2026 representative, my advocacy platform is #HeartFirst, the belief that we can honour both our health and our dreams. I want to help create more spaces where wellbeing and creativity coexist, where people are encouraged to care for themselves while also pursuing the lives they genuinely want to live. Events like Preetiya Habba are important because they make those possibilities visible.
What other performances are you looking forward to witnessing at the event?
Honestly, all of them. One of my favourite things about community events is witnessing artistes show up with honesty and vulnerability. Every performer brings a unique story, perspective and energy to the stage. I’m looking forward to cheering for fellow artistes, discovering new voices and simply being part of a community that gathers to celebrate creativity, authenticity and Pride. Those moments of connection are often just as meaningful as performing itself.
We had to ask, so what does World Music Day mean to you?
What I love most about music is that it doesn’t ask us to speak the same language. No matter where we come from, what we believe or who we love, we can all listen to a melody and feel something move within us. Music bypasses explanation and goes straight to the heart. Everything I create comes from that place, somewhere deep beneath words, where feeling ls become sound. My mother often tells me that when I play, she can feel exactly what I’m trying to say without me saying anything at all. That’s the magic I’m always chasing: creating something so authentic and unadulterated that it reaches another human being exactly as it left my heart. And maybe, just maybe, that’s what music is for.
And finally, because we’re all super curious, how and when did you begin chasing the waves?
When I first learnt to surf, my instructor told me something I still carry with me today: the board is your comfort zone. As long as you’re holding on to it, you’ll stay afloat, but you’ll never ride the wave. At some point, you have to trust yourself enough to let go, stand up and allow life to carry you forward. Surfing taught me that you can’t ride a wave while thinking about the one you’ve already missed or the one that’s still coming. The only wave is the one beneath your feet. The moment you start living in the past or the future, you lose the present. Life feels much the same. I can’t control what has happened or predict what comes next. All I can do is show up fully for the wave I’m on right now and dance with it while it lasts.