Navratri & Garba 2026

The UK’s garba season is the largest in Europe: nine nights in school halls and sports centres across Harrow, Wembley, Kenton, Hounslow, Croydon and Ilford, in Leicester’s Gujarati community centres, and in Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds, with Bollywood-garba fusion nights in central London. The Bengali associations set up Durga Puja pandals in London and across the Midlands.

America’s garba season is the biggest outside Gujarat, and it runs in school gyms, banquet halls and temple grounds from New Jersey to the Bay Area: Schaumburg’s eight-night Garba Festival at the Haridham temple outside Chicago, the nine nights of the New Jersey circuit — Lake Chateau Banquets in Woodbridge, Panash in New Brunswick, Old Bridge High School and the Cranbury and Edison halls — the free garba on Union Square in San Francisco, the Tri-Valley and South Bay dandiya nights, Montgomery County’s free garba in Gaithersburg, the Dandiya Dhamal Saturdays at John Champe High School in Northern Virginia, and Austin’s run from Leander to Cedar Park. Most nights are on the two Saturdays, 10 and 17 October 2026, since the weekdays are school nights.

Tickets are usually $10–25 in advance and more at the door, with children cheaper or free; the big halls sell out the Saturday before. Dress is chaniya choli and kedia or kurta — rented or bought on Oak Tree Road, Devon Avenue or Hillcroft the week before — and dandiya sticks are sold at the door.

Canada’s garba is the GTA’s: Brampton’s Soccer Centre holds the MGSOC Navratri Mela and Navli Navratri in the first week and the BSO Ras Garba at Dreams Convention Centre the second, Mississauga’s banquet halls run Bollywood garba nights, Durham Garba Fest fills the Abilities Centre in Whitby, and Pickering, Ajax, Hamilton, Cambridge and Kitchener hold their own; Calgary’s Ramjhat Garba takes over City Hall, Surrey’s Taj Park banquet hall and Ottawa and Kingston keep the season alive further out. The Saturdays — 10 and 17 October 2026 — are the big nights.

Tickets run C$10–30 and the Brampton nights sell out early; children are usually free. Dress is chaniya choli and kedia, from the Gerrard Street or Brampton shops, and dandiya sticks are sold at the door — many halls are dry, so check before planning the evening around a bar.

Garba nights run in Munich, Frankfurt, Berlin and Stuttgart, organised by Gujarati associations and Indian student groups, usually on the two Saturdays of Navratri. Durga Puja is kept by the Bengali associations in most large cities, often in a rented hall over a long weekend.

Garba runs in Amstelveen, Eindhoven and the polder towns around Utrecht; The Hague’s Hindustani temples keep the full nine nights; Durga Puja is celebrated by several Bengali associations, the largest in the Amsterdam and Utrecht areas.

Leuven’s Garba Dandiya Night in Heverlee has run for years; Brussels and Antwerp hold theirs on the same fortnight, and the Bengali associations set up Durga Puja pandals in Brussels and Antwerp (their own page: Durga Puja).