This Diwali, the usual cavalcade of diyas and fairy lights has been refracted through a more theatrical lens. The Phoenix Mall of Asia’s India Light Festival 2.0, Sitaro Ki Diwali, has returned with a robust and more picturesque goal. Based in Bengaluru, the festival was launched during Navratri. The light festival is totally on board to illuminate the space and disperse the festive vibe. It re-envisions the mall’s central plaza as a stage where large-scale light sculptures, kinetic LEDs, and sculptural archways will bestow the most engrossing engagement to the people. Apart from this, they also gather people, prompt photographs, and, briefly, make the ordinary feel astonishing.
The Theme
Hitherto, the decor’s yearly resonance was with repetitive props and motifs; however, ILF 2025 did bring innovation to the table. This festive season, they traded the in-box familiarity for an experiential rendezvous. The theme for this year is Rhythms of Reverie, where light sequences behave like musical notes, and walkways respond to motion, and the roof is suspended with stars, which will definitely turn heads. Each installation is displayed with a purpose, and each piece appears to be self-contained and photogenic. Individually, each display appears like a short scene in itself; however, it is the cumulative effect that lingers.
The festival positions itself not as retail theatre but as a public artwork that happens to sit inside a mall.
The Four Signature Installations
Four classic environment simulations anchor the show. At first, there’s a towering aurora portal christened as ‘echoes’ with programmable LEDs, which is best for Instagrammable snapshots that feel like standing at the brink of entering a totally different time-space. Following it is the tunnel of colours, which overturns the simple act of walking through it into a performance. Beams of light layer up and shift so that each footfall can be displayed with a new palette. Then there’s Dreamscape, a maze of gradients and net-like lights that makes people slow down and lose orientation. It offers the experience of walking through a constellation, beautiful and immersive. Also, Chasing Stars is an overhead procession of warm-lit stars and arcs that feels like an urban night-sky, only more deliberate, and undeniably manufactured.
| Installation | What it does |
|---|---|
| Echoes | Aurora portal of programmable LEDs that appears cinematic, doorway-like, and excellent for photos. |
| Tunnel of Colour | A coloured-beam walkway that changes with movement; playful, immersive, and kinetic. |
| Dreamscape | A woven, galaxy-inspired maze — contemplative and gently disorienting. |
| Chasing Stars | Overhead arches of warm lights and stars create a communal, starlit canopy. |
An Invitation to All — Art for Everyone
Beyond the awe-inducing visuals, the festival’s democratic gesture is its accessibility. The installations are free and open to the public, inviting families, couples, and neighbourhood crowds to make the mall their Diwali mosey. That accessibility is very thoughtful as the festival’s organisers have labelled ILF as a ‘civic offering’ as much as a commercial attraction, which, in a city that stages pop-up experiences and Diwali markets every year, gives this installation a competitive edge as a cultural destination.
Ritu Mehta, Centre Director at Phoenix Mall of Asia, frames ILF 2025 as an experiment in scale and feeling. “Phoenix India Light Festival 2025 is one of the most unique, immersive, experiential festivals of its kind in India, blending art, technology, and imagination into a celebration that sparks wonder for every visitor,” she says.
Phoenix Mall as Bengaluru’s Cultural Trailblazer
The Phoenix Mall now appears to be an example for all the malls and shopping stops in Bengaluru, as they have distinctly emerged as a trailblazer for inventive festive programming in recent years, turning retail spaces into seasonal hubs of art and culture. The festival also finds itself fitting into a broader setup, as the city’s people desire some leisure and fun during the festive time, ILF offers them a spectacular blend of experiences with easy accessibility, making it the all-around spot to shop, eat, and then drift straight to the illuminated installations. These artworks are intended for quick consumption and repeat pictures, reels, and posts tagged from the plaza; this suggests the festival is succeeding at what it set out to do: be seen, shared, and re-seen. What ILF 2025 offers, skilfully, is an encounter tuned to both the eye and the feed, a seasonal work that admits its reliance on spectacle while still offering genuine moments of collective delight.
Where Tradition Meets Urban Modernity
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A city that gets adorned with a plethora of Diwali attractions, Sitaro Ki Diwali stands out for the craft of its staging and the freedom of its access. It is neither a colossal museum piece nor a shallow marketing stunt; it squeezes itself in, satisfyingly, somewhere between public art and seasonal entertainment. For anyone plotting the new rituals of urban Indian Diwali, where shopping, social media, and communal light shows come together, the Phoenix India Light Festival is a great spot to crash in.
Highlights
- Free, public, and experiential — ILF 2025 transforms the mall plaza into an accessible cultural destination.
- Four signature installations (Echoes, Tunnel of Colour, Dreamscape, Chasing Stars) create distinct sensory scenes that encourage movement and lingering.
- The festival’s theme, Rhythms of Reverie, links soundlike light choreography with contemplative moments, balancing spectacle with subtlety.
- Designed for both in-person wonder and social sharing, the installations are highly photogenic without entirely sacrificing tactile engagement.
- Position Phoenix Mall of Asia as a seasonal cultural hub in Bengaluru, reflecting how retail spaces now double as sites for public art and communal ritual.
Takeaway
Sitaro Ki Diwali feels exactly like a generous, well-orchestrated piece of an urban theatre-like setup that understands the conventions of our mediated festivals. With time, people’s preferences and choices shift, making celebrations absorb new-age angles. The whole execution of ILF is very inclusive in this aspect as it spectates the new age festive season as a space of joy and leisure, and thus, curates a cozy spot for all kinds of people to walk in. It is unapologetically a great experience and not simply performative. This form of civic art shall proliferate elsewhere in India within the urban landscape, so that people get to see a different shade of the festive season. Still, as a Diwali proposition for a city that loves both light and an audience, ILF 2025 delivers warmth, craft, and a pleasingly luminous idea of togetherness. Wishing you all a happy and prosperous Diwali.
