The Desert Festival at a glance
Also called: the Maru Mahotsav.
Organised by: Rajasthan Tourism, with the district administration.
- When
- About three days ending on the full moon of Magh
- Usual month
- February, sometimes late January
- Where
- Jaisalmer town, its stadium and the dunes at Sam
- Best day
- The finale on the dunes at Sam
- Book by
- Many months ahead
- Good for
- Music lovers, photographers, families with older children
- Nights we suggest: three in Jaisalmer and one in a dune camp for the finale.
- From Jodhpur: about five hours by road.
- The honest part: it is not an ancient festival, and nobody here pretends it is. What it celebrates is old.
Why the desert throws a party
The founding: Rawal Jaisal of the Bhati Rajputs founded his fort on the three-peaked Trikuta hill in 1156.
The caravan city: for six centuries it lived off caravans carrying spices, silk, indigo and salt between Sindh, Persia and the plains of northern India.
The havelis: its merchants poured their profits into the carved havelis you still see today.
- Founded
- 1156, by Rawal Jaisal of the Bhati Rajputs
- Site
- The three-peaked Trikuta hill
- Trade
- Spices, silk, indigo and salt
- Road west closed
- 1947, at Partition
- Sonar Kella
- Filmed here by Satyajit Ray in 1974
- The decline: the sea routes drained the trade in the nineteenth century, and Partition closed the road west in 1947.
- A border town: Jaisalmer became remote, and many of its merchant families left.
- The slow revival: the army built roads, Satyajit Ray filmed Sonar Kella, the golden fortress, here in 1974, and travellers began to arrive.
- The festival's birth: it grew out of that revival, gathering the Thar's music, camels, turbans and moustaches into three days of contests and performances.
- The timing: set to the full moon of Magh, when the days are warm and the nights still cold, with performers from across western Rajasthan.
- The turban: the safa, the tied turban, tells you a man's community and the season.
- The moustache: a matter of family honour.
- The musicians: the Manganiyar and Langa musicians have sung the genealogies of their patron families for centuries.
- The camel: it carried the whole economy of the desert until living memory.
- On stage: for three days, what the Thar has lost and kept is put on a stage, and the town laughs at itself a little while doing it. Our Jaisalmer guide tells the longer story.
When the festival falls
The usual month: in most years Magh Purnima falls in February, and in some in the last days of January.
This coming year: in 2027 the Magh full moon falls in the second half of February, but the festival's own programme is announced only a few weeks ahead.
- Length
- About three days
- Ends on
- Magh Purnima, the full moon of Magh
- In 2027
- Magh full moon in the second half of February
- Dates announced
- A few weeks ahead, by Rajasthan Tourism
- Days
- Mid to high twenties
- Nights
- Cold, close to freezing in the dunes early in the month
- Treat dates as provisional: any date you read online is provisional until Rajasthan Tourism sets it. We confirm the exact dates each year and hold rooms as soon as they are known.
- Our favourite month: February is our favourite month in the Thar, festival or not, with sunny days and cold nights.
- The light: low and golden, the air clear and with little haze.
- A holy month: Magh is a time across north India for bathing in sacred water and giving to the poor, and its full moon is one of the auspicious days of the year.
- A quiet season: it comes long after the autumn millet harvest and before the heat, when farming and herding families have a little time to spare, so it has always been a good moment to gather.
- Read more: our guides to the best time to visit Jaisalmer and Rajasthan in February set the festival against the season.
The days before
- What happens: performers arrive, camels are groomed and the stalls go up in the week before.
- The feel: a lovely, slightly chaotic time, with rehearsals in the lanes and the fort quieter than it will be later.
The three festival days
Day one: usually the procession and the first contests.
- Day two: camels and sport.
- The final evening: moves to Sam.
- Changes: the order shifts a little each year, so we fit your mornings around the programme once it is published.
The weeks after
- Same weather, fewer people: come in late February or early March, when the town is calm, rooms are easier and the dunes are quiet.
- A journey for it: our seven-night Under the Thar Sky journey follows a similar route without the festival.
What happens, day by day
The opening procession
What: most years the festival opens with a procession of decorated camels, men in towering safas, women dancers, drummers, brass bands and folk troupes.
- Where it goes: slowly through town towards the main stadium.
- Where to stand: arrive early on a raised step or a rooftop, because the crowd closes in quickly.
- The picture: the colours against the yellow stone of the town are the photograph everyone wants.
Turbans and moustaches
Where: in the stadium, the contests that give the festival its fame.
- Turban-tying: men race to wind several metres of cloth into a perfect safa on a volunteer's head, and the crowd judges the speed and the shape.
- The moustache competition: men with moustaches waxed and curled to astonishing lengths parade before the judges.
- Join in: visitors are sometimes invited into the turban contest, and it is harder than it looks.
Mr Desert
The title: the most loved of the festival, judged on dress, bearing, moustache and a good deal of charm.
- The contestants: local men in full traditional dress, and the crowd cheers every one of them.
- The prize: the winner becomes a small celebrity in town for a year.
Camel day
The events: camel races over the sand, decorated camels on parade and camels made to dance to the drums.
- Camel polo: played with long sticks from high saddles, while a commentator enjoys himself enormously.
- The BSF: the camel contingent of the Border Security Force, which patrols the desert frontier, has often performed too.
Evenings on the stage
The programme: folk music and dance on stages in town after dark.
- Who performs: Manganiyar and Langa singers, Kalbelia dancers in swirling black skirts, and the gair and fire dances of the region.
- Seats: the best go early. We keep a shaded place for you by day and good seats by night, with a rest at the hotel in between.
The finale on the dunes at Sam
Where: about forty kilometres out of town, on the dunes at Sam, on the last evening.
- What: camels race on the sand, musicians and dancers perform as the light goes, and the full moon rises over the dunes.
- The feel: crowded, loud and joyful, and being part of that crowd is the point.
- Afterwards: back to the quiet of your camp for dinner by a fire.
The musicians, the heart of it all
The Manganiyars: hereditary Muslim musicians of the Thar. For centuries each family was attached to Rajput patrons, singing at their births, weddings and deaths and reciting their genealogies.
Shared devotion: their songs are in Marwari and Sindhi, and many honour Hindu gods and saints as well as Sufi ones. That is part of what makes the desert's music so moving.
The Langas: a related community who traditionally sang for Muslim Sindhi Sipahi patrons, and play the sindhi sarangi and the algoza, a pair of flutes played at once.
- The kamaicha: the Manganiyar's own instrument, a bowed lute with a round belly of mango wood and sympathetic strings that hum beneath the tune.
- The khartal: wooden clappers played in the hand at astonishing speed.
- The morchang: a jaw harp that buzzes like a desert insect.
- Watch the hands: the singers' hands tell the story as much as the words.
- The Kalbelia: a community of former snake charmers, whose dance of spinning skirts and snake-like movement is on UNESCO's list of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity.
- Read more: our pages on the Manganiyar singers, folk music and dance and the Kalbelia dance introduce the performers more fully.
Where to be in Jaisalmer during the festival
Jaisalmer Fort, at dawn
The walk: up into the living fort as it wakes, through its great gates to the main square.
- The Jain temples: visit during morning worship, when the light falls through the stone lattices in shafts. Leave shoes and anything made of leather outside.
- Why early: by late morning the lanes are busy.
Gadisar Lake, at sunrise
- What: the old reservoir below the town, ringed with shrines and pavilions, and the calmest place in festival week.
- How: take a rowing boat out at first light, then have tea on the ghats as the town wakes.
The haveli lanes
Patwon ki Haveli: Patwon ki Haveli, five houses built for five brothers.
- Salim Singh ki Haveli: Salim Singh ki Haveli, the minister's house with its peacock brackets.
- When: during the festival, these are best before breakfast.
Bada Bagh, for the evening light
- What: the hillside of royal cenotaphs north of town, glowing at sunset.
- Why go: it stays peaceful even in festival week, a good place to breathe between events.
Kuldhara and the empty villages
- What: the abandoned Paliwal village of Kuldhara, with roofless houses and a temple in the sand.
- When: a quiet hour on the road to Sam, on the way to the finale.
Etiquette and respect
Ask before close-ups: ask before photographing anyone up close, especially women, and offer to show the picture. Performers in the stadium expect cameras. Families in the lanes do not.
Jain temples: leave leather outside, dress modestly, keep your voice low and don't touch the images.
- Tip musicians: directly and generously when they play for you. Many performers rely on the festival season for much of their income.
- Don't climb: stay off monuments and crumbling walls. The fort stands on soft stone and its walls are fragile.
- Polite refusals: decline when a stranger offers a cheap camel ride or a factory price at a cousin's shop. Ask us instead.
- Learn the greeting: khamma ghani, the Rajasthani greeting. In the fort lanes it will get you invited in for tea.
- Patience at Sam: the finale is joyful but dense, so hold hands with children and keep valuables at the camp.
A word about the camels
A lifeline: the camel was the lifeline of the desert, and most of its owners are proud of their animals.
At the festival: camels are dressed, raced and sometimes made to dance to the drums.
- Mostly good-natured: most events are. A few are not, so we take you to the ones we are comfortable with and quietly steer you away from any where animals look stressed.
- If you ride: short, slow and in the cool hours, on healthy camels with handlers who look after them.
- Our rules: our camel safari and ethical animal encounters pages explain them.
- Their story: our journal piece on the camels of Rajasthan tells it.
How we plan festival week
Few good rooms: Jaisalmer has only a handful of truly good hotels and camps, and the festival fills them. We hold rooms as soon as the dates are announced.
Our rhythm: three full festival days from a quiet base outside town, then a night in the dunes for the finale, so you finish where the festival does.
The road in: most of our guests come by way of Jodhpur, with a night in the dunes at Manvar to break the drive.
- Lead time
- As early as possible, ideally many months ahead
- Nights
- Three in Jaisalmer, one in a dune camp
- Crowds
- Heavy in town, dense at the Sam finale
- Weather
- Warm days, cold nights
- From Jodhpur
- About five hours by road
- Flights: Jaisalmer airport runs seasonal winter flights in some years. Schedules change, so we confirm them when we plan your trip.
- Pace matters: three festival days are more tiring than they look.
- Our daily plan: the fort and havelis very early, the contests in the late morning and afternoon, a long rest after lunch, and one evening event rather than all of them.
- A guide with you: through the busiest hours.
- Pack a jacket: a proper one for the camp.
- The moon: the full moon washes out the stars, so add a dark night on another trip if you want the Milky Way. Our piece on stargazing in the Thar explains when.
What to pack and wear for festival week
Layers: dawn at the fort can be cold enough for a fleece, by eleven you will want cotton, and after dark at a dune camp a proper jacket.
Light down: a light down jacket packs small and earns its place.
A large cotton scarf: the sun is fierce even in winter, and when the wind lifts the sand at Sam it is the first thing you will reach for.
- Shoes: comfortable closed shoes that slip off easily, for the fort's worn stone ramps, the dunes and the temples, where shoes come off at the door.
- Modest clothes: cover shoulders and knees, for men and women alike.
- Colour welcome: bright colours are welcome. This is a festival, and the town dresses up for it.
- Sun kit: sunglasses, sunscreen and a hat for the stadium, where there is little shade in the middle of the day.
- Camera care: a camera bag that seals, and a cloth and blower for your lenses. Fine sand gets into everything on the finale night.
- A turban: our guides will tie a safa for you the Jaisalmer way. It is the best way to be welcomed in the crowd.
- Read more: our page on the Rajasthani turban explains each style, and our packing guide has a list for every season.
Where to stay for the festival
Suryagarh
Where: about thirteen kilometres out on the Sam road.
- What: a modern fort built in the old Jaisalmer manner, in the same yellow stone, around courtyards and a pool.
- Why: close enough for dawn at Gadisar and for the finale on the dunes. In festival week its calm is worth a great deal.
The Serai
What: SUJAN's tented camp on about a hundred acres of private desert.
- Where: about forty minutes from town.
- Who it suits: couples, for whom it is our first choice: festival days in town, then silence and a fire in the evening.
A camp at Sam or Khuri for the finale
How we choose: a small, well-run camp, picked each season for the last night.
- Our checks: set back from the main road and the loudest neighbours, private bathrooms with hot water, music ending at a civilised hour and healthy camels.
- Quieter dunes: Khuri is calmer than Sam.
- Read more: our guide to luxury desert camps explains what we look for.
Why not inside the fort
Our rule: we don't book rooms inside Jaisalmer Fort.
- The reason: it stands on soft rock, and its drainage was built for families who carried water by hand, so the water used by hotels weakens the hill.
- Instead: we stay outside and spend the days inside with a guide who knows the families who live there.
- Alternatives: our guide to luxury hotels in Jaisalmer compares them.
What to eat in festival week
Ker sangri: ker is a small, sharp berry from a leafless desert shrub, and sangri are the long beans of the khejri tree, the tree the Thar depends on.
How it is cooked: both are dried in summer and cooked with oil, red chilli and spices into something tangy and nutty. Our ker sangri explainer tells you why they became a delicacy.
- On the side: bajre ki roti, pearl-millet flatbread smeared with ghee, a fiery garlic chutney and a bowl of kadhi.
- The vegetarian thali: Jaisalmer's old merchant families were largely Jain and vegetarian, so this is the most local meal in town.
- For meat eaters: laal maas, cooked slowly with red chillies.
- On a cold morning: a glass of hot milk with saffron from a bazaar stall.
- One special evening: a rooftop table facing the fort, timed for the moment its lights come on.
- What to order: our food of Jaisalmer guide lists it.
Journeys and places to combine with the festival
The Desert Festival journey
- Length: seven nights.
- The route: Jodhpur with Mehrangarh at opening time, a night in the dunes at Manvar, three full festival days from Jaisalmer, and a camp at Sam for the finale.
The desert triangle
- Add Bikaner: Bikaner is five to six hours north-east, for Junagarh Fort and a palace hotel.
- The triangle: that completes our desert triangle of Jodhpur, Jaisalmer and Bikaner.
Bustards and embroidery
- Wildlife: a morning in the Desert National Park with a naturalist, looking for the great Indian bustard.
- Crafts: a day in the embroidery villages of Barmer to the south.
Other winter festivals
Bikaner: the Bikaner Camel Festival is held in January.
- Nagaur: the Nagaur cattle fair falls in the winter months.
- Jaipur: the kite festival and the literature festival fill January.
- Combining: in some years two can be combined, and we check the calendar every year.
The lakes afterwards
- Desert and water: the best pairing in Rajasthan.
- The journey: our honeymoon in Udaipur and Jaisalmer ends by the lakes, a calm counterpoint to festival week.
Who will love the festival, and who won't
You will love it if: you enjoy music, colour and crowds in good humour, and a moustache competition makes you smile.
Families: those with older children enjoy the camels and the races.
- Photographers: they find a new picture at every turn. Our photography tips help you plan the light.
- Harder if: you dislike crowds, loudspeakers or dust, or want the desert at its most silent.
- What festival week means: Jaisalmer is full, Sam is busy, and the bright moon hides the stars.
- For silence: come a few weeks later, or choose a moonless week at a camp like Manvar Desert Camp instead.