In 2018, Indian Summer Festival explored the expansive theme of Mythmaking, examining ten centuries of human imagination and storytelling. Across time and cultures, people have longed to understand where we come from, why the world exists, and how things came to be. For millennia, we gathered around fires, beneath trees, and in hillside amphitheatres, spinning stories to explain the unseen forces that shape our lives.

It was through storytelling that we defined ourselves. Our ability to create and believe in shared myths—whether existential, like global creation stories, or functional, like the concepts of money or nationhood—set us apart as a species.

To explore these ideas, Indian Summer Festival 2018 brought together a continent-spanning lineup of artists: from inheritors of ancient oral traditions to genre-defying musicians, award-winning novelists, and bold visual artists.

We were thrilled by the range and vision represented at the festival. Audiences joined us to engage with some of the most insightful and creative minds on the planet in what became one of the most eclectic, thought-provoking, and nourishing two weeks of the summer.