The five-day annual Konark festival , the Odisha Government’s oldest and most ambitious cultural event, being hosted at the world heritage site here, concluded on Tuesday along with the five-day annual International Sand Art Festival mounted at the Chandrabhaga beach. The focus of the festival this year was drawing more visitors from foreign shores.
Development Commissioner R Balakrishnan’s vision and timely intervention into the designing of the festival reaped host Odisha Tourism rich dividend. The Department’s Mission-Malaysia brought more than 100 visitors from Malaysia to the tiny town.
Taking a keen interest in attracting more visitors from abroad to Odisha Government’s 28-year-old annual national dance festival, Balakrishnan had personally chaired over the artistes’ selection committee meeting and had insisted on exploring South Asian countries like Malayasia this year by featuring dance troupes from Malayasia in order to bring more visitors to Odisha through the festival.
Since Air Asia has launched direct flights between Bhubaneswar and Kuala lumpur, dancers, dance lovers and tourists would love to visit Konark in larger numbers, he had emphasized.
The festival this year invited Bharatanatyam troupe of the famed cultural institution, Temple of Fine Art, and well-known Malayasian Odishi dancer Ramli Ibrahim’s troupe Sutra Foundation – both from the capital city of Kuala lumpur – that brought the largest contingent of visitors from Malayasia.
“Since the dancers came, their family members, friends and relatives preferred to travel with them to Konark. For us, it was a great honour of being invited to a very famous Indian dance festival. So, all of us were in a celebration mood. Your Government’s initiative has promoted both tourism and bond between people and cultures,” observed Sumathi Chandra, who teaches Odishi at the Temple of Fine Art.
A large number of Malayasian visitors spent at least five days at Konark where hardly tourists spend the nights. They also visited Puri, Konark, Chilika and Bhubaneswar that boosted much of our tourism, revealed tourist guide Pravas Mohanty at Konark.
The hosts, however, failed to bring the Chief Minister and the Governor to the festival who used to grace the inaugural and the closing ceremonies as a tradition of this 28-year-old festival.
The concluding evening witnessed Mohiniattam concert by Mumbai-based celebrated exponent Kanak Rele’s Nalanda Dance Research Centre followed by Odishi by Odisha Government owned Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra Odishi Research Centre.