San Ramon, California - Emerald San Ramon will open its banquet hall for a Navratri Dandiya Night on Friday 16 October 2026, bringing garba and dandiya to the Tri-Valley for an evening running from 6pm to midnight.
The night is open to the public and ticketed, and is aimed squarely at families across San Ramon, Danville, Dublin and Pleasanton who would otherwise drive to Fremont or Milpitas for a dandiya floor. Tickets are limited by the size of the dance floor rather than a guest list.
What follows is what the evening is, for anyone deciding whether to come.
What a dandiya night actually is, if you have never been
Two dances share the floor. Garba is the circular one, danced with your hands, moving around the centre. Dandiya is the one with the sticks - paired up, striking on the beat, rotating through partners as the circle turns. Both are simple at their core and both get faster as the night goes on.
You do not need to know the steps. Nobody learns garba from a class; you learn it by standing in the outer ring and copying the person in front of you for ten minutes. The outer ring is slower and more forgiving on purpose. That is where everybody starts.
What to wear
This is the night people dress for, and it is half the point.
- Chaniya choli, lehenga or a kurta with a dupatta - mirrorwork and bright colour are traditional and photograph beautifully
- Kurta and jeans is completely fine if that is what you have
- Comfortable shoes, or none - many people dance barefoot, and the floor here is smooth
- Something you can move in for hours, because you will
Dandiya sticks are usually easy to find in the weeks before Navratri at any Indian grocery around the Tri-Valley.
Who the evening is for
Dandiya nights are one of the few events that genuinely work for a whole family at once. Grandparents dance the early rounds, children run the edges of the floor, teenagers arrive late and stay latest. It is also one of the easier nights to bring friends who have never been to an Indian celebration - the dancing explains itself, the food does the rest.
If you are coming as a group, come early. The floor fills from the middle outwards and the first hour is the one where there is room to learn.
Where it is, and why the room matters
It is at Emerald San Ramon, the banquet hall on San Ramon Valley Boulevard - so for anyone in San Ramon, Danville, Dublin or Pleasanton it is a short drive rather than a trip across the bridge.
A dandiya floor needs three things a school hall rarely has: a hard, smooth surface with room for a moving circle, sound that carries to the edges without deafening the middle, and somewhere to sit down that is not the floor. The hall is one room, one event at a time, with its own foyer for the sitting-down part. You can see how the room looks dressed for an evening in the gallery.
Food
There is food. Navratri food is its own tradition - many people fast in particular ways across the nine nights, and a night that ignores that is a night half the room cannot eat at. The kitchen here is the venue’s own, so the menu is planned with the same team running the evening rather than a caterer booked separately. More about how the catering works is on the catering page.
Tickets and the date
The evening runs from 6pm until midnight on Friday 16 October 2026, at the hall in San Ramon. The exact date, what is included and tickets are all on the event page:
Tickets are limited by the size of the floor rather than the size of the guest list, so the earlier ones go first. If you are bringing a group, book them together - it is easier than finding each other later.
If you are planning your own event
A dandiya night is one use of the room among many. The same floor is used for weddings, parties and corporate evenings through the rest of the year. If you are thinking about a date of your own, the contact page is the fastest way to ask.
