Why did India Bike Week move from Goa to Panchgani?

Why India Bike Week left Goa

India Bike Week was due to hold its 2025 edition at its usual home, Vagator in Goa, on 12 and 13 December. It never happened there. Goa's Zilla Parishad elections got rescheduled to 20 December, overlapping the festival's dates, and organisers moved the whole event to Dubash Airfield in Panchgani, Maharashtra, holding it instead on 19 and 20 December 2025. Existing Goa tickets stayed valid at the new venue, and anyone who could not make the trip to Maharashtra could claim a full refund up to 3 December.

That was meant to read as a one off. It has not turned out that way. India Bike Week 2026 is also set for Panchgani, on 4 and 5 December, at an altitude the organisers themselves now lead with. The official event page puts it plainly: "After a decade in Goa, IBW has climbed to 4,550 ft."

How India Bike Week began

The festival's own founder traces its name to a single evening in Delhi in 2012. Martin da Costa, who runs the events company 70 EMG, has said that Anoop Prakash, then the first managing director of Harley Davidson India, told him over a drink, "Call it India Bike Week and count us in." The first edition followed in 2013, founded by da Costa and Darayash Gocal, and drew more than 5,000 riders to Goa.

The festival grew through the following decade. A pandemic era edition in 2021 pulled 3,500 riders. By 2024, da Costa was describing the 11th edition, held on 6 and 7 December at Vagator, with Harley Davidson backing the Flat Track race with a ₹10 lakh prize. He has also said the number of biking clubs in regular touch with IBW grew from fewer than 100 in 2013 to more than 400 by 2022, with the festival now pulling an annual crowd of 30,000 to 40,000 riders across its two days.

What changes in Panchgani, and what the 2026 edition costs

Panchgani sits roughly 4 hours from Mumbai and 2.5 hours from Pune, a different crowd to the one Goa's flights and beaches used to pull. The hill terrain suits the kind of racing IBW has built its reputation on. The 2026 edition runs three FMSCI sanctioned races, a Hill Climb, a Flat Track and a Dirt Dash, with a combined prize pool of ₹12 lakh. Riders need a one time FMSCI racing licence, and race entry is signed up for separately from the general festival pass.

On ticketing, early bird passes for 2026 start at ₹1,999 for a single day regular pass and go up to ₹7,000 for a two day platinum pass, with later priced tiers still to be announced. Around 250 brands are expected to set up stalls across the two days, and organisers have said tickets for this edition are non refundable and non transferable, a tighter policy than the one that let Goa ticket holders carry over to Panchgani last year.

What it means for Indian riders

For riders based in Maharashtra, Pune and Mumbai, Panchgani is a shorter, cheaper trip than Vagator ever was. For Goa, it is one less marquee event on a winter calendar that has leaned heavily on tourism from biking festivals. Organisers have not said whether India Bike Week returns to Goa in future years. The language on the official site, about climbing to 4,550 feet after a decade on the coast, reads like a festival settling into its new address rather than waiting out an election calendar.

Sources

• Goa Holds Great Potential For Motorsports: IBW Founder and Director Martin da Costa
• India Bike Week 2026 dates announced
• India Bike Week 2025 shifts from Goa to Panchgani
• India Bike Week 2026 dates announced, festival returns to Panchgani in December
• India Bike Week official site
• How India Bike Week has been growing the leisure biking community in India