Delhi Tourism Celebrates North East Cultural Extravaganza: A Vibrant Showcase of Dance, Music, and Tradition

Dilip Guha, New Delhi: Delhi Tourism One of the prime organisations of the Delhi Govt. has been organizing many fairs and festivals from time to time. In this series, Delhi Tourism and Transport Development Corporation (DTTDC) organized for the first time the two-day (16th & 17th December 2023) North East Cultural Festival in collaboration with North East Zone Cultural Center (NEZCC) at Central Park, Connaught Place, Delhi.

DTTDC is a public sector undertaking of GNCTD and is set up to provide Tourism in the NCT of Delhi. Regularly, DTTDC organizes Heritage Walks and festivals/Events such as Garden Tourism festivals, Mango festivals, Food Festivals, Music Concerts, Dance festivals, etc, Culture is a strong binding force and holds great potential to boost tourism culture. Delhi has a sizable population of persons from the North Eastern states, besides representation from the other States of India.

The objective of this festival is to increase the understanding of the cultures of North Eastern States. This Musical Concert and cultural Programme with performances of Bands/ Orchestral Music from the eight northeast states.

Northeast Cultural Festival, connecting people celebrating life is an attempt to showcase and create awareness about India’s Northeast, its people, and resources. The event has been organized where Audiences take a plunge into the melodious world of rhythmic music along with beautiful renditions of dances at Musical concerts and cultural programs of Northeast states. The theme of the festival was “North Eastern Dance & Music”

Individual folk dances & folk music, comprising eight different ethnic tribes/communities, from eight NE States presented by 125 Artists from the region.

On the first day, the visitors watched and appreciated the performances of Rikhampada (Arunachal Pradesh), Bihu Naach (Assam), Lai Haraoba (Manipur), Wangala (Meghalaya), and music performances by The popular Musical band of Nagaland -“Divine Connection- Rock Band” They performed different Western, Bollywood and North Eastern melodies & Folk Music during the programme.

A glimpse of all the dance forms from eight North-East states was seen in the gracefully choreographed folk dance “Colours of North-East India” which was the main attraction. Folk Dance presentation with live music under the theme “Colours of Northeast India” curated by Sangeet Natak Akademi Awardee and Director of NEZCC Dr Prashanna Gogoi and his team consisting of dance performances of the artists from eight NE states namely Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tamang Sikkim, Tripura. A beautiful rendition of the dance performance by the dancers with traditional musical instruments and velvet voices kept the audience spellbound.

Smt Madhavi Aggarwal independent director of NJMC Ministry of Textiles GOI, Board of Governor’s member Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan Ministry of Youth and Sports and Vikram Bhist SDM (HQ) North East Delhi were the chief guest of the first-day programme. Other Dignitaries present on the occasion are Smt Sunita Kumari Kaushik Chief Manager (Events), Maniksha Bakshi Manager (PR&PUBLICITY) Kavita Pal, Dy. Manager ( PR) from Delhi Tourism, and Dr Gogoi Director NEZCC.

On the second day of the event, Sh. Saurabh Bharadwaj, Hon’ble Minister of Tourism was the Chief Guest and distinguished dignatories Mrs. Niharika Rai, MD & CEO, DTTDC, Mrs. Geetika Sharma, General Manager, DTTDC, Dr.Prashanna Gogoi, Director NEZCC also graced the occasion.

The dance performances of Chhei Lam and Cheraw (Mizoram), Njanta (Nagaland), Tamang Selo (Sikkim), Hojagiri (Tripura) were presented today. Besides, the musical band ‘6 Strings’ (Assam) and choreographed folk dance “Colours of North East India” were the attractions of the evening.

This festival will be in the annual schedule said a DTTDC spokesperson. The event concluded with distribution of certificates to the performers & group photo of all the participants with a promise to meet at the ‘Western Musical Carnival’ which will be organised at Kala Gram, Garden of Five Senses from 22nd December to 25th December 2023.