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Dastkari Haat Crafts Bazaar Returns to Chennai After a Decade

  • Writer: Style Essentials Edit Team
    Style Essentials Edit Team
  • 3 days ago
  • 2 min read

After nearly ten years, one of India’s most respected craft platforms returns to Chennai. From 30 January to 5 February 2026, the Dastkari Haat Crafts Bazaar, curated by Dastkari Haat Samiti, re-emerges at the NIFT Campus in Tharamani with a week-long celebration of India’s living craft traditions, inviting the city to pause and rediscover the handmade.


Once fondly remembered for transforming the shaded environs of the Kalakshetra Campus into a vibrant craftscape, Dastkari Haat now comes to NIFT Chennai, one of India’s premier institutes for fashion, design, technology and management. The shift in venue places traditional craft within a contemporary design ecosystem, creating a dialogue between heritage practices and new creative generations.



Open daily from 11:30 am to 7:30 pm, the bazaar brings together master artisans, weavers, painters and craft communities from across India. What unfolds is not merely a marketplace, but a space where processes, skills and regional knowledge are visible and accessible. Visitors encounter craft not as display, but as lived practice shaped by material, labour and time.


This edition features a wide spectrum of traditional and contemporary crafts. Ajrakh block prints from Gujarat sit alongside Ikat, Jamdani, Chanderi, Maheshwari and Banarasi weaves. Embroidery traditions from Kutch and Kashmir include Chikankari, Kantha, Soof and Crewel. Painted art forms such as Pattachitra, Pichhwai, Gond, Kalighat, Madhubani and Phad add another layer of visual storytelling, while objects in metal, wood, bamboo, cane, terracotta, glass, jute and handmade paper expand the bazaar into a tactile landscape.


Several rare and exceptional practitioners are part of this edition. A Pattachitra artist from West Bengal will present painted scrolls accompanied by traditional songs. Gold-leaf embossed Pichhwais from Rajasthan, silver jewellery from Odisha, jute durries from Mirzapur, Ajrakh block printing from Gujarat and Pattu weaving from Rajasthan appear not as curated trends, but as practices sustained by living communities.



The experience extends beyond stalls and displays. Chhau dance performances from West Bengal and traditional Rajasthani cuisine add rhythm and sensory depth, turning the bazaar into an immersive cultural environment rather than a transactional space.


The bazaar will be inaugurated on 30 January 2026 at 5:00 pm by renowned dancer and guru Leela Samson, a long-standing supporter of Dastkari Haat Samiti. For founder Jaya Jaitly, the return to Chennai carries significance. “After a decade, we are ready,” she says. “Ready to present, ready to welcome, ready to unfold stories slowly, thoughtfully, and with care.”


Dastkari Haat remains rooted in the belief that craft is not static. It evolves through people, through movement, through exchange. This edition in Chennai offers a rare opportunity to engage directly with the hands, histories and processes that continue to shape India’s handmade traditions.


Event Details


Venue: NIFT Campus, Rajiv Gandhi Salai, Tharamani, Chennai

Dates: 30 January – 5 February 2026Time: 11:30 am – 7:30 pm

Instagram: @dastkarihaatsamiti


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