One of India’s longest-running festivals, the electronic and alternative music-focused Magnetic Fields has announced that it is moving out of its host venue, Alsisar Mahal in the town of Jhunjhunu in Rajasthan. Consequently, the festival, which has been held in the second weekend of December since its launch in 2013, will cease to exist in its current avatar.
“We are reimagining how the Magnetic Fields experience is embodied – inviting our community to return to something more connected, more intentional and more present,” shared the festival team in an official statement.
The proliferation of music festivals in India over the past few years “prompted the team to relook at their offering and go back to the drawing board to create an experience that’s more intentional, inspiring and community driven”, adds the press release.
That experience will be Magnetic Fields Nomads, which is scheduled for the February 13-15, 2026 weekend in a new location in Rajasthan. Although the statement refers to this as “the inaugural celebration”, the first and so far only edition of Magnetic Fields Nomads was staged in March 2021 in Ranthambore. While the pilot edition was restricted to 400 people and featured an all Indian line-up because it was staged during the pandemic, Magnetic Fields Nomads will be a larger event with both international and domestic acts.
Details about its refreshed avatar—which will have the core Magnetic Fields ethos of showcasing “the best in underground music from around the world” and championing “young and upcoming artists in India” while also bridging “the gap between various musical communities, traditions, and genres”—will be shared with those who register for news updates on magneticfields.in.
The end of the flagship Magnetic Fields festival, as we know it, follows the shift of its more mainstream counterpart Sunburn from Goa to Mumbai for its 2025 edition. There are also rumours that another enduring Indian festival IP, NH7 Weekender, is swapping its host city of Pune—where it was cancelled at the last minute in 2024—for the National Capital Region.
These decisions, which were undoubtedly hard to take, point to the headwinds faced by promoters while mounting large-scale music events in India. While Sunburn and NH7 Weekender reportedly had to repeatedly tackle run-ins with authorities, in Magnetic Fields’ case, insiders say that it simply outgrew its venue, the 17th-century palace called Alsisar Mahal, which became increasingly crowded as the festival’s popularity exploded and drew a substantial segment of attendees who came for a weekend of revelry rather than the roster.
It will be interesting to see how Magnetic Fields Nomads retains many of the elements that made its predecessor such a beloved experience while also offering something distinct that attracts discerning music fans.