The Story
ŪRU was born out of a deep desire to connect queerness back to the land — to lay deep roots for building a community, a queer village. Queer spaces in India were, and mostly still are, limited to clubs and bars in big cities. We wanted something else: a safe space in nature where queer people could gather without walls, and an alternative art scene with access to extraordinary musicians and folk artists who rarely find their way into the usual urban queer setting.
So we built a village. ŪRU is India's first and only queer camping festival.
The first edition happened in Wayanad, Kerala in 2022, hosted at Oxyfarm Resorts, in collaboration with Out & About — a community organization already doing remarkable work on the ground organizing queer-exclusive treks and trips. It was a small gathering, around sixty of us, and it proved the idea: when community comes together, magic happens.
The second edition returned to Oxyfarm Resorts in 2023, in collaboration with Out & About, Hers is Ours and Kalai. The village stayed intentionally small, but grew deeper — this was where an identity of ŪRU truly began to take shape: a real alternative space for the queer scene, rooted in folk, with art at its heart.
The third edition moved to Kodaikanal, Tamil Nadu in 2025, hosted at Hillock Holidays — the most attended ŪRU yet, with around 100 ticket holders and close to 150 people on the festival grounds, counting artists, workshop facilitators and volunteers. For the first time, it felt less like a gathering and more like a festival.
In December 2026, the village rises for the fourth time — at Varanashi Organic Farms, where the forest meets the fields.
