India's Greenest Festival Brings Nature-Art to Old Factory

A 60-year-old glass factory in Bengaluru is pulsing with life again, hosting an ambitious festival that reimagines how we experience art and nature together.

The Sixth Sense festival opened this month at Alembic City, bringing 15 immersive art-tech experiences and 20 waste-to-art installations to the sprawling industrial space. Created by the team behind Echoes of Earth (India's greenest music festival), this new event spent two years in development to offer something deeper than a typical weekend celebration.

The star attractions include The Banyan Tree, a massive installation by new-media artist Stephen Bontley exploring connection and resilience. Sounds of the Ocean invites visitors into underwater soundscapes, while Mycelial Imagination celebrates the hidden networks beneath our feet. A 360-degree dome experience wraps audiences in light and sound, making nature's intelligence visible in ways our eyes normally can't perceive.

Festival director Roshan Netalkar wanted people to explore ecological themes at their own pace rather than rushing through a two-day event. The vast factory spaces create multiple viewing angles, transforming industrial architecture into an unexpected canvas. Visitors wander through bio-acoustic recordings, digital art zones, and AI-inspired imagery that challenges what we think intelligence actually means.

The festival partnered with jewelry brand Tanishq for a large-scale art show using 3D projections to tell the story of diamonds from mine to symbol of love. Berlin-based STUDIO RE:SORB designed the experience to connect emotional storytelling with cutting-edge visual technology.

International artists from Germany's NODE Institute are teaching interactive workshops for creative coders and digital designers. Musicians including Max Cooper, Luke Slater, and sitar virtuoso Niladri Kumar round out the programming through February 22.

The Ripple Effect

Organizers expect 35,000 visitors from India and abroad to experience this fusion of art, sustainability, and technology. By hosting the event in a heritage industrial space, the festival gives new purpose to abandoned architecture while putting Bengaluru on the map as a global digital arts destination, not just a tech hub.

The collaboration model brings together cross-cultural artists, local communities, and commercial partners in ways that benefit everyone involved. Educational workshops build skills in immersive media, while the zero-waste ethos proves large-scale events can minimize environmental impact.

Most importantly, the festival uses technology not just for spectacle but to help people feel wonder, curiosity, and responsibility toward nature and each other.

In a world where screens often isolate us, The Sixth Sense proves technology can also unite us around what matters most: our shared planet and collective future.