With the dreamy Secret Garden Weekend drawing closer, here’s why and how the festival will awake (and assault) all 5 of your senses. Prepare yourself for something out of the ordinary.
1. Missed Holi? No Problem. 
The Secret Garden lets you celebrate life with the ‘Color Battle’- where you can relive your Holi experience with organic paints & colors made from the fresh flowers curated form their very own garden. Each day, there will be a shower of colors that will explode onto you just before the Finale Act – so wear white and spread the love through colors amongst the other Secret Gardeners.
2. Find yourself, but first – lose yourself.
A geometrically designed walk – through maze called ‘The Road of Thought Labyrinth’ of about 10 x 15 metres that you can walk through after consuming the ‘Secret Potion’ – essentially a drink made of spices and absinthe, with the intention of welcoming the gardeners to the festival with a “buzz”. The Labyrinth is filled with visual art, moving objects and fantasy characters posing thought-provoking questions that are aimed to awaken your “Sixth Sense”, at the same time extending the concept that experiencing all five senses leads to a possible sixth one. Trippy stuff.
3. Confess your sins.
The Tree of Secrets is a pyramid-shaped structure of ropes where the Secret Gardeners can climb in and drop off their secret confessions in a box. The idea is to take them through the relieving experience of making a confession and getting it off their chests. So if you have an anonymous confession to make, write it down on a sheet of paper which will be hung on a clothesline across the festival. Every one hour, secrets will be revealed at random – so be mindful, you don’t want to be revealing a bit too much.
4. Play Hide & Seek in the Day.
During the afternoons there will be workshops on fragrances and sensory experiences along with blindfolded sensory trails, where adults or children alike can indulge in their very own game of hide and seek amongst a fragrant – rich field of flowers.
5. Get drunk, there’s wine.
Treat yourself to the most exotic wines with exclusive workshops on wine aromas.
6. Do all of the above, with sensational music playing all around.
The Secret Garden will comprise a number of areas each targeting a specific sense. The Main Stage will showcase the best of Indie & Electronica, while the Gulmarg Stage will be an enclosed igloo made of over 70 different types of fragrant flowers and light installations, showcasing rare and fresh World Music. Check out the entire line – up HERE. Also, gear up for a special turntable workshop where the TSM crew will educate you about the origins of DJing.
7. Mind Over Matter
Witness an astounding “walk of fire” by Mitesh Khatri who will be performing this unnerving and oddly fascinating act -depicting the strength of the human mind to accomplish any task, however daunting.
Fancy testing your inner strength and courage by walking barefoot over a bed of hot embers or stones? Try this.
One festival, Two days and countless things to do, see, and smell. One is bound to feel spoilt for choice. Do yourself a favour and head over to Pune next weekend for this mind-bending experience.
The Secret Garden Weekend will take place from 7-8th June at the Irish Village, Pune. you can buy (your quite reasonably priced) tickets for the festival HERE.