4th North East Festival kicks off in New Delhi today

Delhi, 4th November 2016

4th North East Festival kicks off in New Delhi

The fourth edition of the North East Festival - Connecting People, Celebrating Life – started in New Delhi today.

The three day festival is being organized from 4th to 6th November 2016 at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, New Delhi. The North East Festival aims to showcase to the people of Delhi the rich cultural heritage of the North Eastern part of the country and integrate the Northeast with the rest of India. Over the last three years, lakhs of people have attended the North East Festival, which has gone on to become one of the biggest festivals of Delhi.

Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma, Convener, North East Democratic Front, inaugurating the festival, said, “North East Festival is a successful, national platform to showcase North East and make people understand about the North East. All of us should support this great initiative.”

Every year North East Festival tries to attract tourists to the north eastern region. As a part of the campaign, this year North East Festival is promoting Assam and Assam Tourism under the platform Destination North East. A special presentation on Awesome Assam by Govt of Assam was made in front of tour operators of Delhi, officials from central tourism ministry.

The 3-day festivities will have fun and frolic galore will showcase the entire Northeast India in all its finest glory and colourful hues via art, crafts and culture, songs, dance and movies, food, sports and fashion and much more.

Headlining the North East Festival 2016 would be the musical festival comprising icons of North East Region such as Papon, Zubeen Garg, rapper Borkung Hrangkhal, DJ Zaeden, rock bands Traffic Jam, Fourth Element, Mo & The Shooting Stars, Reverse Tragedy and many more. Raas Leela of Manipur, around 20 folk dance forms, along with the famous Ram Vijay Ankia Bhaona of Assam will be presented by Sangeet Natak Akademi. Fashion shows comprising of the best North East handlooms would be showcased by around 20 talented young designers and models of the North East region. For food lovers, an exotic collection of delectable cuisines from the North East with around 30 food stalls will be on offer.

North East is also famous for its traditional sports. North East Festival would display the traditional sports of North East with around 14 sports which would be part of the festival. Live art, a photography exhibition showcasing the vivid wildlife and natural beauty of the region, an art workshop with 20 talented young artistes of North East, plenty of interactive games – the gala North East Festival will have it all!

A large exhibition of products from North East called “Make in North East Exhibition”, including handloom & handicraft, agro and food products would be on display with around 100 entrepreneurs participating from all across the North East region, who would present their products.

North East Festival is an effective platform for raising the critical issues affecting the North East. Mr. Shyamkanu Mahanta, Chief Organiser, North East Festival said, “We would like to invite all the people residing in Delhi-NCR to come and enjoy the three days full of fun and frolic. We are hopeful that the North East Festival will create good vibes among the people of North East and rest of India, and in the process help in integrating them. ”

Mr. Mahanta also informed that one of the core objectives for this edition will be to promote tourism in the region and plenty of tour operators and tourists are slated to attend the North East Festival. He added that it would also be a platform to promote business for North East entrepreneurs, apart from building bridges with Delhi.

See a photo gallery here