Port Blair, Nov 06: The Islands Tourism Festival-2019 began at ITF ground today.
Though the scheduled inaugural ceremony of the ten-day festival was postponed due to inclement weather conditions, a large number of people, including tourists, doemstic as well as foreign, thronged the ITF venue to witness the cultural programme presented by the artistes of Eastern Zonal Cultural Center, South Zonal Cultural Centre besides artistes from these Islands. The ten-day festival is being organized by the Tourism Department, A&N Administration.
The cultural programme unfolded with the presentation of Nicobari Dance on the theme ‘nature’, ‘people’ and ‘Island of Nicobar’, which drew applause from the audience. This was followed by presentation by the Octave choreography team comprising of 7 North Eastern States. The non-stop fusion of cultural dance presented by the artistes of all the 7 states one after the other enthralled the audience present at the venue. The ‘Bihu’ and ‘Naga’ dances stole the show of the Octave Choreography. The North Eastern States that performed included Sikkim, Meghalaya, Assam, Nagaland, Tripura, Manipur and Mizoram.
Later, the artistes of Sursaptak, Ecstasea Musical group and Lakshya Musical group presented musical programmes. Besides, creative dance by artistes of Saphaire Creations West Bengal and classical dance by Balakrishna Nritya Academy was also enjoyed by the gathering.
People were also seen visiting stalls put by different Departments, private organizations and entrepreneurs. Altogether 36 stalls have been put up at the ITF venue out of which 6 stalls have put up by different Departments and 9 stalls are of cuisines.
Apart from the Islanders and the tourists from mainland, foreigners were seen enjoying the cultural programme at the venue. Speaking to our Reporter, Nikhil, Evmika, Tibor and Lokas from Slovkia said, “we have come here to have a glimpse of the Indian cultural programme and to visit the stalls put at the venue. We are here for a couple of days at Port Blair. It was a great show by the artistes from North eastern States, they said”.
This Reporter also saw for himself a good number of people visiting the ITF Ground with great enthusiasm to have glimpse of the events and stalls. Cultural programmes will also be held at the Flag Point during the ten day festival. Besides, various other activities such as a floating restaurant-cum-bar, delicious food courts stalls of attractive handicrafts, ‘Hasya Kavi Samelan’, Rangoli & Flower Shows by Agriculture Department and ‘Dog Show’ by the Department of Animal Husbandry & Veterinary Services, A&N Administration, fun games for children are also available.
