Approaching Natvar Parekh Compound in Govandi, the venue of the first Govandi Arts Festival, we aren’t sure what to expect. We step into a huge colourful pavilion buzzing with people across age groups, ranging from adolescents and teenagers to adults, all working towards the same goal — to create a cracking new event in the eastern suburbs.

Hosted by Community Design Agency (CDA) and enabled and supported by the British Council as part of its India/ UK Together, a Season of Culture programme, the five-day festival is a blend of Govandi’s art and culture to bring forward stories of the slums. In a chat, Sandhya Naidu, CDA’s founder and managing director, shares how she was inspired by the paradox of challenging surroundings and its resident’s passion to work around it, “I saw a stark difference in the engagement to better this area when art was used as the binding tool. In that process we uncovered that people here want to show that they are not defined by their neighbourhood. That is how the idea for this festival emerged.”