[PhotoSparks] Sunday Soul Sante: art, food, music – and startups

PhotoSparks is a weekly feature from YourStory, with photographs that celebrate the spirit of creativity and innovation. In this photo essay, we feature the startups and creative works of art on display at Bangalore's favourite flea market, Sunday Soul Sante!

In the earlier 85 posts, we brought you a wide range of creative photographs from an art fair, world music festival, painting fair, telecom expo, art museum, mobile showcase, math museum, social hackathon, bookstore, co-working space, sensorium, international design week, flower show, outdoor ads, startup roadshow, computer museum, startup T-shirts, business cards, art therapy, startup festival, Diwali rangoli, Vesak, jazz festival, modern art gallery, ecopreneurs, painter-poets, health activists, eNGOs and digital innovators.

Traditional and contemporary works of art blended together at the recent Sunday Soul Sante in Bangalore, as close to 300 booths showcased the wares of ‘artrepreneurs’ at the ITPB grounds in Whitefield. Clothes, accessories, jewellery, paintings, psychedelia and decorative items provided a splash of colour and design to almost 20,000 visitors - along with live music, DJs, creative foods and a range of startups.

‘Quick. Spicy. Mallu.’ – that’s how food stall Bhook Sanam described itself. Colourfully painted recycled glass bottles seemed to be very popular, and a number of startups had booths as well: Cupick talent marketplace, Bookle online bookstore, Kultura cultural products site, Shades of Green house gardens, and Tee20.com for casual Fridays T-shirts.

Asha Rao, one of the founding members of Sunday Soul Sante, had set up the Arts and Crafts Trust for Visual and Performing Arts in mid-1996. The trust organised its first fair in 1997. A while later, Asha and Sanam Malhotra (who had also modeled with Prasad Bidapa for three years) launched the first edition of Sunday Soul Sante in September, 2010 at Bangalore Palace Grounds.

Their team has been amazed every year at the products and designs that have come their way. More youngsters dive right into entrepreneurship and design, straight out of college, instead of following traditional paths. “It's encouraging to think that they are brave enough to venture on the unbeaten path, and it would be wonderful if we could play some tiny role in helping them to reach where they would like to go,” says Asha.

“The idea is to curate and constantly reinvent customer experience whether it be art decor, musical genres or interactive activations with our partners. We look to give every Sunday Soul Sante-goer something to look forward to with every edition,” she adds.

Here are Asha’s tips for aspiring entrepreneurs and startups, which she shared with YourStory in an interview after the March edition of Sunday Soul Sante:

1. Find something you love doing, and start doing it right away - even as a hobby, if need be. Pursue it - you never know where it might take you.
2. Persevere. Above anything else, do not give up on what you are passionate about doing. Find a way to make it work. Sometimes, all you need to do is strive and things will work out wonderfully!

So if ‘soul food’ is what you need as a creative spirit, make sure you attend the next edition of this flea market in May!

Got a creative photograph to share? Email us at [email protected]!

See also the YourStory pocketbook ‘Proverbs and Quotes for Entrepreneurs: A World of Inspiration for Startups,’ accessible as apps for Apple and Android devices.