Purple Fest is India’s first-of-its-kind inclusive cultural festival that celebrates the lives, talents and rights of persons with disabilities. Taking place in Goa since 2023, the initiative unites artists, activists, policy-makers and communities for a cultural event that has been conceived entirely around access and integration aims. Purple Fest is designed from the ground up to be different in various aspects.
More than a cultural showcase, it has turned into a movement of social justice, economic empowerment, and coevolutionary participation. With performances, exhibitions, workshops and experiential zones, Purple Fest aims to challenge misconceptions around disability and reiterate that accessibility is for everyone. Moreover, it is a landmark in the direction of India’s determination for a barrier-free free inclusive society, where disability is not a limitation or disadvantage but only a mere individual diversity among humans.
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Inclusive Foundations and Multicultural Engagement
Incorporating representation as a core principle is a distinguishing characteristic of Purple Fest. India is a vast country with many languages and cultures, but many of these societies are sidelined in cultural representation. Multilingual and multicultural participation breaks the misconception that inclusion is just about physical access. Inspired by the Purple Pencil Project, which digitally crowdsourced non-Anglophone Indian literatures to make them accessible, Purple Fest aims to amplify underrepresented voices.
This encompasses regional performance traditions, literary and cultural works in local languages that are habitually sidelined. This is how the festival makes participation possible and creates opportunities to break cultural barriers. The commitment to multiculturalism is not just symbolic; it is substantive and structural. Purple Fest are providing opportunities to address disability and inclusion as part of India’s cultural identity by showcasing art, music, literature, and performances from different cultures.
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Practical Accessibility Features
Accessibility for Purple Fest is not regarded as an “add-on,” but rather, the event is built around it. The International Purple Fest in Goa 2025 is an exemplar in operationalising inclusion at multiple levels:
- Physical accessibility involves the provision of ramps, lifts, accessible restrooms, and transportation.
- Sensory inclusion is provided through live captioning, sign-language interpretation, tactile sign-language, and visual description so that people with disabilities can participate fully.
- People who may feel overwhelmed cognitively and emotionally can be supported through the use of calm spaces known as sensory rooms.
- Access to information is provided through a dedicated app and festival guides that are trained to respect various attendee needs, as well as festival brochures.
Purple Fest advances multiple dimensions of accessibility, setting a benchmark for other cultural events in India. It is significant that in this case, the concern is not accessibility as an afterthought; it is an integrated approach that ensures full participation with respect and dignity for all.
Economic Inclusion: The Purple Pound
The festival also highlights the economic aspect of accessibility. On a global level, the term “purple pound” concentrates on the spending ability of persons with disabilities and their family members. When commercial and cultural spaces become inclusive, they unlock a tremendous potential market opportunity. Purple Fest integrates this concept by advocating inclusive employment, by promoting sculptors and performers with disabilities, and by fostering eco-participation in its economic activities.
For instance, the festival showcases the work of and for persons with disabilities in its marketplaces and exhibitions. This not only counters stereotypes but also highlights the fact that inclusion enables sustainable economic development. Through the integration of cultural industries and economic opportunity, Purple Fest demonstrates that accessibility creates value for society and not only for persons with disabilities.
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Intersectional and Peer-Inclusive Design
Inclusion should always consider the unique aspects that exist within marginalised groups. Purple Fest recognises this through its intersectional approach, going beyond disability inclusion to also embrace queer, indigenous, and regional marginalised identities.
This approach is informed by peer-learning projects and deaf-led models, which demonstrate that accessibility can be created from scratch. Accessibility controlled by those who need it ensures that the decisions made are genuine and relevant instead of coming from outsiders.
Purple Fest uses these techniques and designs systems that truly reflect the multicultural identities of people. Hence, people can regard the festival as more representative of the multifaceted nature of Indian society.
Signature Programming: Spaces and Experiences
Purple Fest not only highlights cultural diversity but also showcases disability accessibility. Purple Fest highlights how specific programs can shape arts, education, sports, and community life through inclusivity.
- Visually impaired artists, performers, and NGO members with disabilities actively run Purple Street as a marketplace. This strives to put creativity and talent at the centre of stereotypes.
- Purple Think Tank is a forum where participants tackle important concerns like education, gender, health, and disaster management, blending disability with other sociological issues.
- Purple Experience Zone provides simulations to help participants understand the daily challenges faced with disabilities to foster empathy.
- Purple Sports and Fun groups offer disability-friendly sports like blind football, tandem sky gazing, and other inclusive recreational activities. This section focuses on leisure.
- Purple Exhibition showcases how design and creativity, along with assistive devices, can innovatively transform lives.
This highlights the need for accessible devices and creative technologies. These activities stress the importance of making festivals both accessible and shareable for all.
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Partners and Symbolism
The accompanying institutional support accentuates the national significance of Purple Fest. The Ministry of Social Justice, the Government of Goa, and UN India jointly organise it, giving it both national and international recognition. People often mistake accessibility for a disability issue, but the chosen theme of Universal Design, which strives to remedy this, asserts that access benefits everyone.
The fest organisers chose the colour purple, which is associated with dignity and relates to self-empowerment. The appointment of 21 festival ambassadors with diverse identities and lived experiences is a step towards representation and advocacy. As champions of inclusivity, the ambassadors enhance the festival’s reach and expand its influence.
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A Cultural Movement, Not Just a Festival
Purple Fest serves a purpose of not just raising public cultural awareness of the local region, but also endeavours to raise cultural awareness of a region with boundaries beyond the local. This demonstrates social participation. Offering a blind person the opportunity to actively navigate the social environment demonstrates inclusion of the blind person. The social environment embraces the inclusion of such a person. The same goes for all the other disabilities that the festival tries to include.
This also serves the purpose of cultural diversity. Society is not concerned with the needs of individuals with functional needs. Such understanding will promote the constant sought inclusion of a person with functional needs. Society will understand the need to raise the public cultural awareness of individuals with functional needs.
Conclusion
Purple Fest is more than a cultural gathering; it is a statement on the kind of society we would like to see India be. Through prioritising accessibility, inclusion and representation, the festival addresses enduring obstacles that have repeatedly marginalised disabled people from participating in public and cultural life. The festival’s idea suggests that we should not see accessibility as a dilution of creativity—accessibility brings us to the heart of artistry itself, inviting more voices into the fold and recognising and responding to an endless diversity of viewpoints and expressions.
Fiscally, it is a festival that also underscores the concept that inclusion is not charity but an investment. This realisation of the “purple pound” served to show how investment in accessible environments had a much broader impact than just for individuals themselves, but entire industry sectors such as tourism, hospitality and cultural organisations. In that way, Purple Fest is an example of a social and economic innovation — that when accessibility becomes the foundation rather than an add-on, it delivers meaningful returns for all.
Most importantly, it is a start to intersectionality. In featuring disability alongside other marginalised identities — regional, linguistic, queer and Indigenous — the festival reflects something of the complex multiplicity that constitutes Indian society. It redefines accessibility as a shared enterprise and turns it into an agent of cultural change. Purple Fest’s true legacy lies not in its performances or exhibits, but in the shifts it inspires—in policy, community norms, and personal perspectives.
The festival reminds us that accessibility isn’t just about removing barriers—it creates a space that is festive, vibrant, and truly inclusive.
Purple Fest envisions a future where inclusivity becomes the norm, diversity is valued, and together they enrich the nation’s tapestry.
FAQ’s
1. What is the main purpose of Purple Fest?
Purple Fest aims to celebrate inclusion and accessibility by showcasing art, culture, and innovation led by and for people with disabilities.
2. How does Purple Fest promote accessibility?
The festival integrates disability-friendly infrastructure, relaxed performances, and inclusive participation models designed from the ground up.
3. Why is the festival important for India’s cultural landscape?
It provides a platform for marginalised voices, promotes diversity in artistic expression, and sets a precedent for inclusive cultural events in India.
4. Does Purple Fest also focus on economic empowerment?
It highlights the “purple pound,” recognising the economic potential of people with disabilities and promoting accessible jobs and industries.
5. Who can participate in Purple Fest?
The festival welcomes all people with disabilities, allies, cultural practitioners, and diverse communities across languages, regions, and backgrounds.
References +
Home page new. https://purplefest.goa.gov.in/
International Purple Festival – Goa 2024 Elevates Hope and Inclusivity for Persons with Disabilities. (n.d.). https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1994450
Purple Fest 2025 was organised at Rashtrapati Bhavan, with an enthralling participation of 23,500 Attendees. (n.d.). https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleaseIframePage.aspx?PRID=2113916
PURPLE FEST 2025 | Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD) |
Home | India. (n.d.). https://depwd.gov.in/en/gallery/purple-fest-2025/
5. Purple Fest 2024 | Pandit Deendayal Upadhayaya National Institute for Persons with Physical Disabilities | India. (n.d.). https://pdunippd.nic.in/purple-fest-2024/
RASHTRAPATI BHAVAN HOSTS ‘PURPLE FEST’ | President of India. (n.d.). https://www.presidentofindia.gov.in/press_releases/rashtrapati-bhavan-hosts-purple-fest-0
Times News Network. (2025, May 2). Goa to host 3rd Purple Fest based on universal design. The Times of India. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/goa/goa-to-host-3rd-purple-fest-based-on-universal-design/articleshow/120829417.cms
Purple Fest 2025 to be held in October in partnership with UN India. ThePrint. https://theprint.in/india/purple-fest-2025-to-be-held-in-oct-in-partnership-with-un-india/2628429/
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