Last updated: October 2026 · Method: desk research across published sources and visitor reports; nothing first-hand, confirm locally.
Bikaner’s event year is short and sharp: the Camel Festival anchors January, the Nagaur cattle fair runs late January into February, Gangaur fills March-April, Janmashtami marks August-September, and the Kolayat fair closes the year at Kartik Purnima in October-November.
This is the festival calendar at its most local, month by month, covering what each month carries beyond the two headline events.
The month-list highlights
- January: the Camel Festival at the city grounds, two-to-three days of processions, races and folk evenings, free to enter with early arrival for the stands. The Nagaur fair opens in late January an hour’s drive away.
- February: the Nagaur trading window continues, a cattle market rather than a fixed three-day show, so the week you pick matters more than the day.
- March-April: Gangaur and the temple festivals, when the circuits run full and the old-city shrines carry their processions.
- August-September: Janmashtami at the Krishna shrines, the temple layer at its most crowded, visitors at the edges.
- October-November: Diwali in the lanes and then the Kolayat fair at Kartik Purnima, the pilgrimage-plus-market event with the ghat lamps at night.
The lunar caveat: Gangaur, Janmashtami, Diwali and Kolayat all ride the lunar calendar, so their dates shift yearly; the 2027 dates guide explains the calculation, and the current year’s official notice should be checked before booking rooms around any of them.