On Saturday night, 17 October, traffic in Mysuru slowed almost to a halt after people came to see the lit palace and left the drone show. Traffic police worked until about midnight. Neither The Hindu nor Star of Mysore reports a crash, injuries or a city-wide driving ban.

The worst crowding was in the centre, around Mysuru Palace and the Dasara Exhibition grounds. Roads to the palace filled while the lights were on, then filled again as people left the show at the Torchlight Parade Grounds in Bannimantap. The Hindu published a photograph from Irwin Road at about 11.30pm.

The railway station and the suburban bus terminal also stacked vehicles. Cars and two-wheelers took the lanes. On several stretches traffic crawled. That is a festival night, not a verdict on the organisers and not a casualty count.

Star of Mysore, also on 18 October, describes the same city under pressure: in the evenings, when the lights go on, a ten-minute trip to work can take more than an hour. It names Sayyaji Rao Road, the palace area, the Mysuru-Bengaluru road and other arteries. It does not timestamp every jam; the overlap is seasonal, not a second clock on 11.30pm.

City police had listed the drone show at Bannimantap at 8pm on 17, 18, 20 and 21 October. Private drones are banned for the whole festival. The official show and the ban on private flights are two different things. Jumboo Savari, the 21 October finale, will close more streets; The Hindu says the next days will be even harder for traffic.

Palace lighting, in the police programme, runs from 7pm to 10pm until 21 October. Saturday's queues show how full the city is when the lights and the show coincide, not that Mysuru was shut.

Image: Rohit14400, night illumination of Mysore Palace, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons; the lit palace, not Saturday night on Irwin Road.

Sources consulted: Grand illumination, drone show trigger traffic chaos in Mysuru - The Hindu; City roads witness traffic jams for Dasara - Star of Mysore.