A three day cultural extravaganza christened ‘Festival of India’ will be organized by the Eastern Zonal Culture Centre (EZCC), Kolkata, in the first week of March in Sikkim.
Discussions have been taking place with the Cultural Affairs Ministry of Sikkim to finalize Sikkim as one of the major locations of the national level festival – Festival of India .
Interim director for EZCC Kolkata, Jitul Sonowal along with programme officer Abhijeet Chatterjee and Chunnilal Ghimirey, president of Sikkim Kalakar Sangh shared the news to the media.
Sonowal is also the director of North East Zonal Cultural Centre (NEZCC) located in Dimapur, Nagaland.
Sikkim falls under both EZCC and NEZCC. The two organizations which function under the Ministry of Cultural Affairs are mandated for the promotion and preservation of various folk cultures and ethnic groups, native to India.
EZCC looks after nine states in the country while all the eight states of north-eastern India are looked after by the NEZCC.
Folk songs and dances of all the ethnic communities of Sikkim will be featured in the upcoming ‘Festival of India’.
Similarly cultural groups from various parts of India will also be participating in the Festival of India to showcase their unique traditions and culture.
The organizers of the event are also very keen to showcase live performances by artists performing with the use of traditional folk instrument of respective communities.
Spokespersons from both the NEZCC and EZCC declared that they would be conducting various cultural exchange programmes and workshops to encourage the longevity of cultural and folk activities.