Anybody experienced this festival first hand? It had been my dream to witness this as an outsider, having very special memories of few days spent in Varanasi hanging around burning ghats.
But maybe I am romanticizing the event and actually its much less pleasant for foreigner.
I was at the 2012 Kumbh Mela, in Allahabad. (some of the pictures are from that event).
It was the craziest event I’ve ever seen, and after 3 months in India I thought I’d seen some stuff.
Nope.
Naga baba’s, doing their tricks and proving their holiness (beating their penis and using them to pick up boulders).
Sat with the guy who’s been holding his arm up to god for, I don’t know 20+ years.
Anything extreme and devoted is considered holy. So this festival brings all those people together, to show in their own way, their devotion.
It’s so loud and chaotic, 24x7. It’s like Times Square meets a music festival, but in every direction, for as far as you can see.
It’s a whole temporary city constructed on the banks of the river, for this festival. Each guru / sect has their own campsite.
Any camp site will feed you, get you stoned, put you up for the night and send you on your way in the morning. (Or you can stay for the rest of your life).
I would recommend it for anyone. But if you get tired of a 3 day music festival... this is going to test you.
I would recommend starting your stay at one of the “foreigner” camps. These are usually the camps of leaders from that are based in, or have a major following from, a developed nation. (We stayed a Brazilian buba’s camp). It was a good base camp, to escape the festival when necessary.
From there you can explore as deep into the festival as you want. It goes for 2 months, so you’ve got plenty of time.
It can eventually become overwhelming and you’ll need somewhere to recharge.
I'm Indian - I plan to visit this time around. The traffic jams to get to Allahabad are horrendous. But the atmosphere at the Sangam (the confluence) itself is unbelievable. About 100 million pilgrims converge in about 50 days. Last time around, even though I did not go to the Sangam, I saw hordes of yogis, sanyasis and sadhus - including Naga sadhus, who are fully nude, save for a small clay pot with coals. The most auspicious dip is during Mauni Amavasya (New Moon day in which people fast and keep a vow of silence) - that is Feb 4 2019. The crowds are the most insane that day.
The roadside was packed with pilgrims all the way. We drove for more than four hours past a continuous stream of pilgrims going home The article says 100m people. That's not a joke. If you want to visit one of these things you had better be the kind of person who enjoys company.
I attended the kumbh in Nasik back in 2015. It was my first time visiting India (spent two weeks in Bangalore for work) and I decided to take a train from Mumbai to Nasik. The whole excursion was something I'll never forget, from the bewildering experience of catching a train in Mumbai, to arriving in Nasik and quickly getting lost, to all of the commotion and crowds in the center of the festival. I was only able to spend 1.5 days there, but it had been on my bucket list for years and I'm glad I made the effort.
But maybe I am romanticizing the event and actually its much less pleasant for foreigner.