The Story
OrganizerThe World Sacred Spirit Festival began in 2007 as the Nagaur Sufi Festival, held at Ahhichatragarh Fort in Nagaur, Rajasthan, to mark the fort's UNESCO Asia-Pacific Award of Excellence for Cultural Heritage Conservation. It has since grown into a two-part event under the World Sacred Spirit Festival name: an intimate opening chapter at Nagaur Fort, limited to guests staying within the fort itself, followed by the larger public festival at Mehrangarh Fort in Jodhpur. Both are presented by the Mehrangarh Museum Trust, established in 1972 and managed by the 36th Custodian of Marwar-Jodhpur, His Highness Maharaja Gajsingh II, who serves as the festival's patron. Musician Sting is also listed among the festival's patrons. The festival is directed by Princess Shivranjani Rajye Alexandra de Cadaval, with Alain Weber as Artistic Director. It focuses on Sufi and other devotional musical traditions from India and around the world, staged across the fort's courtyards, gardens and ramparts. The 17th edition of the Jodhpur chapter was held 13-15 February 2026.
The festival's significance lies in its direct institutional link to Mehrangarh Fort's own heritage-conservation mission: it grew out of a UNESCO conservation award at Nagaur Fort and is run by the same trust, the Mehrangarh Museum Trust, that manages the conservation of both forts, rather than by an independent event organiser. That gives the festival a preservation and patronage framing distinct from most music festivals, closer to a royal-heritage institution's cultural programming than a commercial concert series. Its focus on Sufi and devotional musical traditions specifically, staged in dialogue with international artists through 'jugalbandi' collaborative performances, also positions it within India's broader lineage of Sufi music festivals (alongside events such as the Rajasthan International Folk Festival, also held at Mehrangarh), while its royal patronage and heritage-fort setting give it a distinct identity from more secular or purely folk-focused festivals in the same region.
The festival is confirmed active and continuing at scale, with its 17th Jodhpur edition held in February 2026. It is directly tied to ongoing heritage conservation work: during the Covid-19 pandemic, the festival's organisers, in partnership with Jodhpur RIFF and the Mehrangarh Museum Trust, ran a relief project supporting the traditional musical communities whose livelihoods depend on festivals like this one, indicating a level of institutional commitment to its performing community beyond the annual event itself. For institutional and CSR audiences, it is a useful example of festival programming run directly by a heritage trust rather than a commercial promoter, with its patronage model (royal family involvement, international artistic direction) distinct from government-run or purely commercially sponsored festivals elsewhere in this Atlas.
Brings rare global sacred-music traditions to India in heritage settings.
