With the notorious Bangalore traffic discouraging anything of a long drive, every neighbourhood has become its own self-sufficient township. 

Bars, pubs and restaurants are commonplace now in every hood, but increasingly, so are cultural centres.

And now, Central Bangalore just added two more to its list—new venues at Atta Galatta, and on Brunton Road, Falcon’s Den.

Atta Galatta in Indiranagar added a second venue to their bookstore / community centre. The hall on the first floor can now host larger events with over 100 seated seats. [https://bangalore.explocity.com/bangalore-guide/listing/atta-galatta/].

While Atta Galatta curates a lot of their own events, the hall is available for rent as well. 

With a green room, acoustic panels, sound monitors, and of course a stage, the space can host any type of event. 

The need for a second venue at Atta Galatta was because of demand.

“There has been an increase in demand for events after the closing of Lahe Lahe (another community centre in Indiranagar,) so we want to accommodate the spill from that,” Subodh Sankar told Explocity. 

They currently host events in their bookstore and cafe. But demand has outgrown the size of the existing. When an art supplies store on the floor above vacated, Shankar converted it into a performance space.

Take the metro if you’re coming from outside the hood. It’s a short tree-lined walk to Atta Galatta from the Indiranagar CMH Road Metro station. 

In the heart of town is Falcon’s Den at the Prestige Group’s offices on Brunton Road is also equipped with a green room, seating capacity of 189, LED screens, and has options for catering.

The space was used for their internal meetings but since those are not many, the group decided to put the space to better use.

This venue has already acquired a corporate feel to it—probably because it is in the midst of many international banks—but it has featured evenings of ghazals, for example.

Speaking to Explocity, Uzma Irfan, the Director of Prestige Group said that Falcon’s Den aims for events that appeal to different audiences—from corporate teams and financial institutions to individual professionals. (One evidence of that is a rather unique touch—a podcasting room.)

“We focus on designing experiences that bring people together and encourage collaboration. For example, we recently partnered with MET [Metropolitan Commercial Bank] on team-building activities to foster team morale,” she said, “and our partner Sublime Experiences curates and customises experiences for clients. They are skilled in planning, logistics and coordination… they do bring events to life-—and these events could be corporate breakfasts or evening gatherings... even personal celebrations at Falcon Cafe. These gatherings feel meaningful and memorable.”

Parking is not an issue at this venue. But the Trinity Circle metro station is just a short distance away. 

Corporate feel or not, we believe—for the reasons we mentioned earlier—that given its prime location, there is no reason why it cannot be considered for culture.

The building is already home to one of the city’s most compelling museums—the “Rupee Museum” [https://bangalore.explocity.com/bangalore-guide/listing/rezwan-razacks-museum-of-indian-paper-money/].

Now that the Bangalore commute has encouraged the growth of smaller venues, this is an opportunity for artistes to perform the same show more often, even if it is to smaller audiences.