Magnetic Fields Festival

Magnetic Fields was founded in 2013 by Abhimanyu Alsisar in partnership with the music-and-culture platform Wild City and the creative collective THOT, with Kunal Lodhia and Smita Singh Rathore among its key figures. Its masterstroke was its venue: Alsisar Mahal, a 17th-century palace in the Shekhawati region of Rajasthan, transformed each December into an intimate festival of contemporary music, art and design. Against the backdrop of desert and palace architecture, the festival staged electronic and alternative music across multiple stages, with attendees camping in the dunes or booking fast-selling rooms inside the palace itself.

Over a decade Magnetic Fields built a reputation as India's premier boutique festival — 'contemporary, future-facing, forward-thinking', in its own words. Its lineups paired international underground and electronic artists such as Four Tet, Bicep, DJ Koze, Daphni, Khruangbin and Maribou State with leading Indian acts like Peter Cat Recording Co. and, each year, performances by local Rajasthani folk musicians, weaving ancient and contemporary India together. Art installations, wellness programming, late-night dancefloors and a strong design sensibility distinguished it from the country's larger, more commercial festivals.

In 2025 the festival announced a turning point. After ten editions at Alsisar — and, organisers indicated, having outgrown the palace as its popularity drew larger, less curatorial crowds — Magnetic Fields bid farewell to its longtime home in a statement titled 'A Love Letter to Alsisar'. In its place, the team announced 'Magnetic Fields Nomads', a reimagined, more intentional experience scheduled for 13–15 February 2026 at a new location in Khetri, Rajasthan. The flagship festival as it existed at Alsisar has thus ended, even as the Magnetic Fields ethos continues into a new, evolving chapter.