The Indian Festival Holi signals the end of winter and the start of spring. Also known as the Festival of Love, Festival of Colors, or Festival of Spring, this annual event focuses on love, laughter, play, and the bright colors of the season. Festivalgoers spend time celebrating with friends and family. It’s also an opportunity to make new friends, which gives event creators multiple interactive options when planning their Holi events.
If you’re celebrating Holi with your community, here are some top Holi event ideas and tips you may want to include in your festival.
Begin with Holika Dahan
Holika Dahan is also known as the Burning of Demon Holika. Attendees perform religious rituals around a bonfire, celebrating the triumph of good over evil. There’s often an effigy representing Holika in the bonfire’s center. It symbolizes how Holika was consumed by fire after an attempt on a follower of Lord Vishnu, her nephew Prahlad. It’s also how the Holi Festival received its name.
Celebrate Rangwali Holi
Bright colors are a must — they symbolize spring and the growing season. Ask attendees to wear white so they can get drenched in spring colors during the event.
Want to stay eco-friendly? Organic, water-soluble powders are less likely to cause skin and eye irritation. Water balloons and water guns are great options to cover everyone in color. Fill them with colored water and let attendees drench each other.
Host a sit-down dinner
After everyone has a chance to clean up from the color drenching, consider serving dinner pop-up style.
Traditional Indian dishes and sweets include Puran Poli (flatbread stuffed with lentil filling), gujiya (sweet flaky dumplings), and malpua (sweetened pancakes). Provide after-dinner entertainment with a DJ, poetry reading, or traditional dance performance.
Matki Phod
Don’t forget to include a Matki Phod competition. It’s similar to trying to break a piñata — but you’ll use an earthenware pot filled with butter or cream. (This is yet another reason to hold the celebration outdoors.) Encourage attendees to form teams and charge an entry fee to fund a prize for the first team to break the pot.
Capture the moment
Be sure to capture photos of attendees drenched in color — hiring photographers and videographers will ensure every significant moment at your event is documented. Post the photos on your social media accounts (with participants’ permission) or sell prints as keepsakes.
How DJ Prashant and Bollywood Dreams have successfully run Holi in the city for 10 years
Creators looking for Holi event ideas only need to look to DJ Prashant, who is combining The Festival of Color with a Bollywood party. With ten years of experience hosting Holi in the City (HITC), he has used the Eventbrite platform to amplify his brand’s voice.
He tells us, “HITC is home to people from around the globe that come together to celebrate a fun festival, learn about another culture, and embrace it in the most fun way ever… by throwing organic colored powder at each other and dancing to Bollywood music… Eventbrite has always been an instrumental tool for our success, and we plan to continue using the amazing DIY platform for years to come. I feel that people should speak to past attendees and ask for their unfiltered feedback and make changes as needed to improve on repeat events over the years. Events always need to be fresh and exciting year after year.”
Movie time
Take inspiration from DJ Prashant and combine Bollywood movie screenings with Holi. Instead of offering traditional American movie snacks, offer snacks such as vegetable pakora (crispy fritters), mathri (a type of cracker), and Dahi vada (lentil fritters with a yogurt sauce). These are all snacks typically served at Holi festivals and make perfect movie-night treats.
Consider teaching attendees a song for a sing-along or a dance to encourage participation.
Decorating your Holi event
Bring in color with streamers, lanterns, and balloons. Remember to place fresh flowers around the event to symbolize the arrival of spring. Other decorating ideas include hanging Rangoli drawings and cloth paintings with nature motifs.
Head poolside
Take inspiration from Eventbrite creators who have hosted their Holi parties poolside — consider combining a pool party with your Holi event. Bring colorful centerpieces for the poolside tables — and don’t forget the water guns, colorful balls, and pool floats.
After the event
As an event creator, your work is still ongoing when the event ends. It’s the ideal time to survey attendees or delve into the collected data. You’ll find invaluable information to make it possible to create an even better event next year.
Organize your Holi event today
Now that you have some Holi event ideas to help you get started, Eventbrite can give you even more inspiration. Check out how Eventbrite can help you grow your business and your events.
