Hyderabad’s only experiential flea market held recently at Hitex Exhibition Centre

It’s the season of reds and whites, jingle bells, and carols. As Christmas draws closer, Hyderabadis are all about fun, laughter, and happiness. La La Land 5.0, Hyderabad’s only experiential flea market held recently at Hitex Exhibition Centre, was all this and more.

Families, friends, and little pawed pets indulged in delightful food, enjoyed great stalls, and sang along with the soulful band Capricio. CE took a look at the event and heard from the organisers and curators who made 5.0 happen.

Nihita Raju, Varun Chakkilam, and Vineeth Reddy put their hearts and souls into organising the flea market. Nihita said, “We celebrated our fifth edition at Hitex Exhibition Centre. With over 250 vendors on board, this Christmas edition was our biggest so far.

The brand is growing by the year and we are overwhelmed by the positive response we have been getting and the huge crowds we have been attracting. We thank them for accepting us and opening their hearts to this event.”

Further emphasising on Christmas, the organiser added that the décor totally aligned with the Christmas vibe. “We had many Christmas-themed stalls that sold wonderful goodies and also enjoyed a cake-mixing session, which is a tradition during this season. Even after the event, we wanted to send cakes to people so they’d remember us. Truly, for me, Christmas is all about jingles, snow, and happy moments with friends and family,” Nihita expressed.

Sheena Kaur, curator of the event, was in complete agreement. “This is the only experiential and theme-based flea, something we started five seasons ago, with two editions every year.

We are a team of four based out of Hyderabad - there is a lot of brainstorming that goes into everything and what has to be the ‘it’ factor in the event each year. But we’ve made a mark and now, people look forward to this,” she said.

The curator pointed out that the current generation has forgotten what mela means, so La La Land aims to create that kind of vibe for all generations. “A gentleman, about 85 years old, has been coming for the last three seasons. He sits at the food court and enjoys the flea with his golden retriever.

That is what we want - everything at one place for everyone. There’s shopping, a food court, and bands like Capricio. Getting such things to people at a reasonable price is what La La Land is all about. We have an even bigger edition in March 2025,” she revealed.

Teja, one of the band members from Capricio, spoke about their performance and the songs that they chose to entertain the crowd with. “We played most of our usual sets; songs of AR Rahman sir and Ilaiyaraja sir that people usually miss a lot. We rendered songs from Devara and Arya 2 as well,” he said, adding that Capricio has been played in all five seasons of La La Land Flea.

Teja expressed, “The band was very happy to do this. This flea introduced new things that other markets have not ventured into yet. Unfortunately, we were unable to be a part of the cake-mixing session as we got busy with the sound check.” (laughs)

Though a little shower from above played spoilsport, we jived and grooved to the music, enjoyed what each stall had to offer, and savoured the delicious food which amped up the flavour of the whole event - in short, La La Land 5.0 was spectacular.

— Story by Shreya Veronica