KNMA Music Festival Returns To Celebrate The Voices Of Diversity With Top Artists To Perform

New Delhi: The Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA) is hosting the second edition of the music festival. The 4-day KNMA festival will take place at Sunder Nursery, from 9th to 12th October 2025. Titled ‘Voices of Diversity’, the festival will celebrate the vast and varied sonic landscape of India. 

The music festival will provide a medium of dialogue between tradition and innovation, the marginalised and mainstream, and memory and aspiration. It aims to create a platform for artists from diverse cultural, geographical backgrounds and linguistic expressions. The multi-day festival will bring together music from across India and from various genres, including traditional folk forms, contemporary hip-hop, regional musical traditions, and classical instruments in
contemporary settings and rhythms from marginalised communities.  

Where and when will KNMA festival 2025 take place? 

Sunder Nursery in the National Capital will play host to the music festival. Here, music becomes part of the everyday, where an ordinary stroll might lead to a moment of discovery, connection, or quiet reflection. The easiest way to reach the venue is via the metro. The nearest metro stations to Sunder Nursery are Jangpura (purple line) and Sarai Kale Khan (pink line).
 

The festival will commence at 6:30 PM on Thursday, October 9 and will conclude at 9 PM on October 12, Sunday.

KNMA music festival 2025: Programme schedule and artist lineup 

Lavani Ke Rang, 06:30 PM, October 9

The festival will open with the powerful commentary highlighting the raw voices, captivating expressions, expressive dance, and free-spirited stories that come out of the strong matriarchal communities of Maharashtra. The show will be in Hindi and Marathi languages

Wild Wild Women, 08:00 PM, October 9

The one-of-a-kind show is performed by India’s first all-female hip-hop collective, who have been breaking boundaries with their powerful, unapologetic, multilingual voices, fearlessly echoing the tales of today and tomorrow. This show will be performed in Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Kannada and English.

Imphal Talkies & The Howlers, 06:30 PM, October 10

The soft-unheard stories from the Northeast will also be brought to the fore by the distinctive Manipuri folk rock band. Known for their political music, the band brings to the stage stories of struggle, resilience and the dreams of their communities in English and Manipuri.

The B-Side Project by Anirush Varma Collective, 08:00 PM, October 10

The group presents the enduring beauty within familiar melodies, with an homage to Bollywood in the programme held in Hindi and Tamil.

The Threshold by Pallavi M. D. and Bindhumalini, 06:30 PM, October 11

This show features the poetry of Mirabai, Lingamma and other remarkable women whose stories have been sanitised, distorted, or entirely missed in mainstream depictions.

Prem Ras, 08:00 PM, October 11

A new collaboration between renowned Bhakti artist Prahlad Tipanya and celebrated Sufi vocalist Mukhtiyar Ali, brings together distinct spiritual traditions in a unified expression of divine love.

Baithak: Dr Jayanthi Kumaresh, 7:30 PM, October 12 
The final day of the festival will commence with Jayanthi Kumaresh bringing her signature strain of Carnatic modernism to the quiet hours of Sunday evening.

Nannajja: A Rhythmic Ancestry, 5 PM, October 12 
The vibrant debut performance of the special KNMA commission Nannajja (My Grandfather): A Rhythmic Ancestry under the direction of Lakshmana K.P. breathes life into the evening, foregrounding the questions of identity and ancestry in subaltern percussion.

Parvaaz, 6:30 PM, October 12 

The energetic rock music of Parvaaz then takes the centre stage, weaving together Kashmiri poetry with a strong sense of memory and nostalgia. They will perform in Hindi, Urdu and Kashmiri.

Ankur Tewari and the Ghalat Family, 08:00 PM, October 12 

To close the festival, the soulful acoustic ballads and the groovy folk rock of Ankur Tewari and the Ghalat Family conjure poignant stories of friendship, protest anthems and love songs in Hindi.