Preparations are now in full swing for next month’s mega cultural event to be staged on Mahanadi riverbed near the historic Barbati Fort here for the Odia New Year celebrations.
While the Odia New Year will be observed on the Pana Sankrant Day’ on April 12, cultural events will be held on April 15and 16 evenings, informed the Nababarsha Mohtsav Committee chairman Prasanna Kumar Nanda.
The committee in association with the Cuttack Habitat for Humanity Trust has been holding these mega cultural events for last four years. Every year, lakhs of people enjoy the carnival which is packed with entertainment programmes based on Odia culture.
Highlighting about this year’s preparations, Nanda informed that eminent flutist Pt Hariprasad Chaurasia, who is now based in the US, would perform at the festival.
He further informed that sand sculptor Pramod Patnaik would set up a massive and record-breaking sand sculpture on the occasion for which officials of the Guinness Book of World Record would be travelling to the city to confirm the record.
“While the highest sand sculpture recorded in the world has been 48-feet tall, Pramod would be breaking that record this year,” Nanda said, adding that more than two lakh cubic feet of sand would be used for the sculpture depicting a historical monument of the State.
Besides, the carnival would witness musical versions of famous Odia poems penned by Utkal Gaurab Madhusudan Das, dance performance by eunuchs, Dibyangs and inmates of orphanages and students of schools run by different religious missionaries.
At a preparatory meeting held for it last week, leaders from all religious communities, heads of all local committees and representatives of many cultural organisations pledged to make the New Year celebrations a grand success.