In a first-of-its-kind initiative, the Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) and the Odisha Tourism will jointly organise an international storytelling festival for kids named “BhuFeSto” here from December 6 to 10 on the sidelines of the ongoing Odisha Hockey Men’s World Cup.
The festival will be curated by Bakul Foundation simultaneously at three locations, Buddha Jayanti Park in Cha-ndrasekharpur, Indira Gandhi and Kharavela Park from 2.30 pm to 7.30 pm each day.
Organisers are planning to make this festival a regular annual event and the biggest storytelling festival in the country and one of the most popular events in the world in the coming years.
The “BhuFeSto”, which will have Disney theme parks, is expected to attract more numbers of children, who are a major driver for tourism. The Nandan Kanan Zoo gets the maximum tourists in Bhubaneswar for such parks.
Four main entities food, entertainment, stories and trails (FEST) will be available to attract kids too as Bhubaneswar grows as the leading child-friendly Smart City of the country.
Best storytellers such as Paula Martin from Argentina, Wangari Grace from Kenya, Dr Wajuppa Tossa from Thailand, Dongjoo Bang from Korea and Sabrina Anastasia from France are likely to join.
There will be performances from the rich storytelling traditions of India such as the 13th century Urdu oral storytelling form of Dastangoi represented by its most famous practitioner Himanshu Bajpai, the folk Pandavani tradition from Chhattisgarh represented by its most eminent contemporary performer, Ritu Verma.
The famous Manganiyar tribe of folk musicians from Rajasthan will also be performing for the first time in a collaboration with Deepa Kiran where stories will be interwoven with songs.
The rich storytelling tradition of Ravana Chhaya (shadow puppetry) from Odisha will be presented by Gauranga Das and other storytellers, including Usasi Mishra, Anant Mahapatra and Prachi Tara Mishra.
Besides, the festival would have special storytelling sessions in sign language for children with hearing disabilities by Nita Gopalakrishnan and a special storytelling session for children with visual disabilities by Deepa Kiran.
An outreach programme would be held under which storytellers would move to 10 schools to introduce children to the beauty of the world of stories through storytelling.