20 Famous Festivals of Karnataka with Dates and Images 2024

Karnataka, a state in southern India, is renowned for its vibrant cultural heritage and diverse traditions, beautifully reflected in its numerous festivals. The Karnataka festivals showcase a splendid array of rituals, colours, music, dance, and cuisine, making them an integral part of the state’s identity. The festivals of Karnataka state are celebrated with great zeal and enthusiasm, attracting visitors from all over the world. These celebrations not only offer a glimpse into the rich cultural tapestry of the region but also bring communities together, fostering a sense of unity and joy. One of the significant aspects of the festivals in Karnataka is their diversity. From religious and cultural festivals to the famous harvest festivals, each celebration holds a unique significance. The festivals of Karnataka cater to different faiths and traditions, reflecting the state’s inclusive spirit. Whether it is the grandeur of temple festivals or the simplicity of rural harvest celebrations, every festival has its charm and importance.

Elaborate rituals, vibrant processions, traditional music, and dance performances mark Karnataka state festivals. These festivals often include fairs and markets where locals and tourists can indulge in shopping for handicrafts, textiles, and local delicacies. The atmosphere during these festivals is charged with excitement and devotion, providing an unforgettable experience to those who participate. One of the famous festivals in Karnataka is the harvest festival, celebrated with much enthusiasm by the farming communities. This festival marks the end of the agricultural season and the beginning of a new harvest cycle. The Karnataka harvest festival is a time for farmers to express their gratitude to the gods for a bountiful harvest and to seek blessings for the upcoming season. This important festival of Karnataka is characterised by traditional rituals, folk dances, and feasts that highlight the agricultural heritage of the state.

The famous festival of Karnataka also includes religious festivals that celebrate the legends and deities worshipped in the state. Temples are beautifully decorated, and devotees participate in various ceremonies and processions. These festivals are not only religious observances but also cultural spectacles that attract tourists and provide insights into Karnataka’s spiritual life. Famous festivals in Karnataka offer a fascinating journey through the state’s rich cultural and religious traditions. Each festival, with its unique customs and celebrations, reflects the vibrant spirit of Karnataka, making it a must-visit destination for anyone looking to experience the diverse festivals of Karnataka state.

List of 20 famous Festivals of Karnataka 2024

1. Makar Sankranti(15 January 2024)

Date: 15 January 2024

Makar Sankranti, otherwise called Makar Sankranti, is a huge Hindu festival celebrated across Karnataka. This celebration denotes the progress of the Sun into the zodiac indication of Capricorn (Makara Rashi) and the start of the favourable Uttarayana period. Celebrated on January 14 or periodically on January 15, Makar Sankranti is a period of social merriments, vivid designs, kite flying, huge fires, feasts, and different customs. A gathering celebration represents the victory of light over dimness and is related to offering thanks to nature for its abundance. Individuals observe Makar Sankranti by taking blessed plunges in waterways, offering prayers to the Sun God, and trading conventional desserts made with sesame seeds. The festival in Karnataka today holds social and strict importance, joining assorted networks across India in the festival.

2. Pattadakal Dance Festival (January 22-24, 2024)

Date: January 22-24, 2024

The Pattadakal Dance Festival is a famous festival of Karnataka that commends the rich social legacy of the state. This celebration, the Chalukya Dance Festival, is held in Pattadakal and is known for its authentic, social, and structural importance. The occasion highlights hypnotising dance exhibitions that grandstand the customary artistic expressions of Karnataka. The celebration means keeping the legacy of the locale alive by featuring the excellence and effortlessness of old-style dance structures. Sightseers and local people alike accumulate to observe this dynamic festival that unites dance, music, craft, and culture in a marvellous presentation of ability and custom.

3. Hampi Festival (3 – 5th February 2024)

Date: 3 – 5th February 2024

The Hampi Celebration, or Hampi Utsav, is a spectacular, widespread development celebrated in the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Hampi, Karnataka. Coordinated by the Government of Karnataka, this celebration features customary Kannadigas dance, dramatisation, firecrackers, manikin shows, marches, and melodic exhibitions to renew the brightness of the past period. The celebration highlights elephants, nearby chaps, and ponies enhanced in stupendous outfits suggestive of the tactical style of the Brilliant Time. Hampi Utsav is a lively festival that joins culture and custom for over three days, drawing in north 12 lakh participants who revel in different social celebrations. This yearly occasion features the rich legacy of Karnataka through various connections with projects and exercises.

4. Anvadhan, Magha Amavasya, and Darsha Amavasya (Feb 9, 2024)

Date: Feb 9, 2024

Anvadhan, Magha Amavasya, and Darsha Amavasya are critical celebrations seen on Feb 9, 2024. Magha Amavasya is a day of Maun Vrat or quietness fasting, profound reflection, and interfacing with oneself. It includes customs like taking a blessed dunk in hallowed streams, revering Master Brahma, and performing Pitru Puja. Darsha Amavasya is a day for profound purging, washing in sacrosanct streams, good causes, reciting mantras, and perusing heavenly books. Anvadhan is committed to Lord Vishnu, with fans noticing a day-long quick and performing yajna. These celebrations hold profound importance, offering open doors for reflection, cleaning, and otherworldly development through ceremonies and demonstrations of empathy.

5. Bhanu Saptami (March 3, 2024)

Date: March 3, 2024

Bhanu Saptami, an essential festival of Karnataka, is committed to loving Master Surya or the Sun God. Celebrated on the seventh day (Saptami Tithi) of the waxing moon (Krishna Paksha), this promising day falls on March 3, 2024. Fans see this day with supplications and contributions to Lord Surya, looking for favours for good well-being, success, and satisfaction. The celebration holds colossal importance as it is accepted to be the birth commemoration of Lord Surya, who is viewed as an imperative god in the Hindu religion. Individuals get up on time, clean up, offer Arghya to Lord Surya, use serenade mantras like the Gayatri Mantra, and contribute to satisfying the Sun God. Noticing diets and performing customs on Bhanu Saptami are accepted to bring gifts of work on mental and actual well-being.

6. Maha Shivratri (March 8, 2024)

Date: March 8, 2024

Maha Shivratri, a critical festival celebrated in Karnataka, falls on Walk 8, 2024. This favourable day is committed to worshipping Lord Shiva and is seen with extraordinary intensity and dedication. Lovers take part in fasting, petitions, and contemplations to look for gifts from Master Shiva, the divinity known for obliteration and change inside Hinduism. Maha Shivratri marks the change from winter to spring, representing recharging and resurrection. The celebration holds profound otherworldly importance, with aficionados venerating Lord Shiva, contemplating ethics, and looking for freedom from the pattern of birth and demise. Celebrated with different traditions and customs, Maha Shivratri is a period for contributions, fasting, reciting mantras like “Om Namah Shivaya,” and visiting sanctuaries to respect Lord Shiva.

7. Vishnu Festival in Melkote (March 21, 2024)

Date: March 21, 2024

The Vishnu Celebration in Melkote is commended as the Vairamudi Brahmotsava, a yearly celebration attracting millions of Lord Cheluva Narayana devotees. This celebration is a spectacular festival where the Master enhances the incredible jewel crown, the Vairamudi, accepted to have been introduced by Lord Krishna. The celebration includes a parade of the Master on a brilliant Garuda with his heavenly consorts, Sridevi and Bhudevi, around the central avenues of Melkote. The Vairamudi Brahmotsavam is a critical occasion for Sri Vaishnavas and incorporates different customs, social projects, and religious services over 13 days. The celebration holds monstrous, strict, and social significance, drawing in lovers from all over to observe the magnificence and otherworldly meaning of the festivals.

8. Holika Dahan (March 24, 2024)

Date: March 24, 2024

Holika Dahan in 2024 in Karnataka will be seen on Sunday, March 24. The promising time for Holika Dahan Muhurta will be from 11:13 PM to 12:44 AM on Walk 25. This custom, otherwise called Chhoti Holi, is a critical service in Hindu culture that represents the triumph of good over evil. It includes lighting a massive stately fire after nightfall during the propitious Pradosh Kaal while Purnimasi Tithi wins. Holika Dahan holds a focal spot in Hindu sacred texts and social works, underlining the significance of picking the right timing for thriving and promising starting points. The celebration is commended with significant imagery and custom, denoting the night before Holi, the festival of varieties.

9. Holi (March 25, 2024)

Date: March 25, 2024

Holi, known as Kaamana Habba in Karnataka, is praised with extraordinary pageantry and merriment. This dynamic Karnataka main festival, inseparable from varieties, happiness, and merriments, is seen with remarkable practices in Karnataka. During Kaamana Habba, male relatives take cow excrement and logs from adjoining houses during the day, while young ladies help their moms make Holige, an exceptional dish proposed to Kamadeva in an enormous Agni kund. Young men participate for no particular reason at night, moving around a considerable fire powered by the taken merchandise and singing customary melodies like “kamanna kattige, Bheemana berani.” The celebration revolves around the tale of Kamadeva, the divine force of desire, and Lord Shiva’s showing of obliterating undesirable longings through mindfulness.

10. Bhalachandra Sankashti Chaturthi(March 28, 2024)

Date: March 28, 2024

Bhalachandra Sankashti Chaturthi will be seen on March 28, 2024. This favourable day is committed to Ruler Ganesha and is praised with fasting and supplications to look for his gifts for the evacuation of hindrances and thriving. Devotees notice a severe quick from dawn to moonrise, consuming just natural products, roots, and vegetable items. The celebration connotes liberation during disturbed times and is accepted to assist with defeating snags by seeing this sacred quickly. The staple eating regimen on this day incorporates Sabudana Khichadi, potatoes, and peanuts, with fans breaking their fast in the wake of locating the moon.

11. Kambala Festival (30 March to 20 April 2024)

Date: 30 March to 20 April 2024

The Kambala Celebration is a yearly festival in the Dakshina Kannada region of Karnataka. It is known for its conventional bison race, a novel and famous game in the cultivating local area. This celebration season begins in November and continues until Spring, with occasions held in different pieces of Dakshina Kannada, including Mangalore. The beginnings of Kambala date back more than 1,000 years, developing from early Karaga festivities to the bison races known today. The celebration is well established in the cultivating local area, devoted to Master Kadri Manjunatha, and was generally a type of diversion and a method for satisfying the divine beings for a decent reap. Today, Kambala has become a significant celebration attracting enormous groups to observe the exhilarating buffalo races coordinated expertly with thoroughly prepared buffalo seeking rewards.

12. Ugadi (9 April, 2024)

Date: 9 April, 2024

Ugadi, a huge Karnataka harvest celebration, denotes the New Year in the Hindu schedule and is commended with extraordinary enthusiasm. In 2024, Ugadi falls on April 9. This promising event represents fresh starts, thriving, and the beginning of spring. The celebration has different customs, such as finishing homes with mango leaves and vivid rangoli, preparing customary dishes like holige and obbattu, and looking for favours from elderly folks. Individuals likewise read Panchangam to know the expectations for the impending year. Ugadi is a period for family social occasions, exhibitions, and spreading happiness and energy. It means the significance of embracing change and inviting another pattern of existence with excitement and trust.

13. Karaga Festival (April 23, 2024)

Date: April 23, 2024

The Karaga Celebration, a customary festival in Bengaluru, Karnataka, is a nine-day occasion planned to be held from April 23, 2024. This old celebration, with a background marked by more than 300 years, is well established in the way of life of the Thigala people group and remembers the arrival of Draupadi as Adishakti. The celebration includes extraordinary customs, such as a minister wearing female clothing, driving a parade, and conveying a blossom-decked pyramid on his head. Moreover, the Karaga procession incorporates a visit to the burial chamber of an 18th-century Muslim saint, representing inter-religious solidarity. Despite being praised calmly lately because of the pandemic, the Karaga Festival remains a critical social and strict occasion that draws fans across the city.

14. Vara Mahalakshmi Pooja(August 16, 2024)

Date: August 16, 2024

Vara Mahalakshmi Pooja is a customary Hindu festival celebrated in the southern provinces of India, including Karnataka. This celebration is devoted to Goddess Mahalakshmi, the divinity of abundance and thriving. Seen by married ladies, perform exceptional petitions and customs to look for Goddess Mahalakshmi’s endowments for their families’ prosperity and success. The celebration includes the arrangement of intricate blowouts, offering petitions, and embellishing the house with designs. Ladies commonly worship a sacred Kalash (pot) representing the goddess during this favourable event. Vara Mahalakshmi Pooja holds enormous social and strict importance, underlining the significance of riches, prosperity, and familial amicability.

15. Gowri Festival (6 September 2024)

Date: 6 September 2024

The Gowri Festival, or Gowri Habba, is a huge Hindu celebration celebrated in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu. This favourable celebration is devoted to Goddess Gowri, Lord Shiva’s spouse and Lord Ganesha’s mother. Praised a day prior to Ganesh Chaturthi, it represents the connection between a lady and her loved ones. During this celebration, wedded women perform ceremonies like laying out a symbol of Goddess Gowri, offering supplications, and planning exceptional giveaways called baginas containing conventional things. The celebration includes fasting, petitions for conjugal euphoria, and sharing bliss and success through the trading of gifts. Gowri Habba is a period for conventional clothing, sanctuary visits, and culinary enjoyments like holige and payasam imparted to loved ones.

16. Ganesh Chaturthi (7 September 2024)

Date: 7 September 2024

Ganesh Chaturthi, a critical Karnataka Festival in 2024, will be commended on September 7. This famous celebration, particularly energetic in urban communities like Bengaluru, respects Lord Ganesha, the lord of astuteness, thriving, and favourable luck. Celebrated on the fourth day after the new moon in the period of Bhadrapada, Ganesh Chaturthi includes bringing sculptures of Lord Ganesha into homes or local area spaces. The celebration typically lasts one to eleven days and finishes with Anant Chaturdashi, where fans drench Ganesha icons in water bodies. This celebration has a rich history of the seventeenth century and is a period of supplication, ceremonies, and local area festivities.

17. Ganesh Visarjan on Anant Chaturdashi (September 16, 2024)

Date: September 16, 2024

Ganesh Visarjan on Anant Chaturdashi, which falls on September 17, 2024, is a critical celebration in Karnataka. This day denotes the finish of the 10-day-long Ganesh Celebration, where lovers bid farewell to Lord Ganesha with intricate customs and parades. Families drench the icon of Lord Ganesha in water bodies like streams, lakes, or the ocean, representing his process back to his glorious habitation. The celebration is commended with incredible excitement and commitment, joined by road parades, reciting of psalms, and customary music. Anant Chaturdashi holds gigantic significance as it harmonises with the summit of Ganeshotsav, a 10-day celebration dedicated to Lord Ganesha.

18. Mysore Dasara (3rd October 2024)

Date: 3rd October 2024

Mysore Dasara, one of the main festivals of Karnataka, is a 10-day festivity that begins with Navaratri and comes full circle on Vijayadashami. This celebration, seen in the Hindu schedule month of Ashvina (September/October), means the triumph of good over evil. It respects Goddess Chamundeshwari’s victory over the evil presence of Mahishasura. The celebration highlights social and strict projects exhibiting Karnataka’s dance, music, and legacy. The fundamental fascination is the Mysore Royal residence, enlightened with many lights, creating a hypnotising scene. The feature of Mysore Dasara is the fabulous parade (Jumboo Savari) on Vijayadashami, where the icon of Goddess Chamundeshwari is strutted through the roads of Mysore in a brilliant mantapa.

19. Karnataka Rajyotsava (1 November 2024)

Date: 1 November 2024

Karnataka Rajyotsava, or Karnataka Development Day or Karnataka Day, is celebrated on November 1 in Karnataka. This day denotes the consolidation of Kannada-talking districts in Southwestern India in 1956 to make the territory of Karnataka. The celebration is assigned as a public occasion in Karnataka. It is commended that the state banner be lifted, addressed by the main priest and lead representative to individuals, and the state hymn, “Bharatha Jananiya Tanuja,” be sung. Super occasions are coordinated with social projects, shows, and different types of amusement. The express’s second-most elevated regular citizen grant, the Rajyotsava Prashasti or Rajyotsava Grants, is presented every year by the Karnataka government to people who have made critical commitments in different fields.

20. Annual Cultural Extravaganza in Karnataka (November 2 – 4, 2024)

Date: November 2 – 4, 2024

The Annual Cultural Extravaganza in Karnataka, planned for November 2-4, 2024, vows to be a dynamic festival of the state’s rich social legacy. This occasion will exhibit a different celebration cluster that offers an extraordinary window into Karnataka’s practices and customs. From the great scene of Mysore Dasara to the thrilling energy of Kambala, every festival uncovers an account of custom, harmony, and otherworldliness. These celebrations give a brief look into the core of Karnataka, where old traditions mix consistently with current merriments, leaving enduring recollections for participants. The annual Cultural Extravaganza in Karnataka is a must-go occasion that guarantees a kaleidoscope of encounters mirroring the state’s well-established social embroidery.