A Curtain Raiser event dedicated to the 9th Edition of ‘India International Dance and Music Festival’ and International Kullu Dussehra Festival-2023 was jointly organized by Himachal Pradesh Government and Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) at New Delhi today. Chief Parliamentary Secretary Tourism, Sunder Singh Thakur, who is also a Chairman of the International Kullu Dussehra Festival Organizing Committee launched the Teaser and released a Booklet on the occasion to provide a a peep into the grand celebration of the Festival.
While interacting with the media persons on the occasion, Thakur informed that the International Kullu Dussehra Festival, which dates back to 17th century, will be organized from 24th to 30th October at Kullu this year. He said that the celebrations would commence with the famous Lord Raghunath ji’s Rath Yatra and more than 300 local deities would participate in the mega event. He further added that major highlights of the festival will be organising of the International Carnival on 25th October and Kullu Carnival fest on 30th October.
The International Cultural Festival is a major attraction of the International Kullu Dussehra Festival in which cultural troupes from over 20 countries including Russia, Israel, Romania, Kazakhistan, Croatia, Vietnam, Thailand, Taiwan, Panama, Iran, Maldives, Malaysia, Kenya, South Sudan, Zambia, Ghana and Ethiopia are have been invited to participate in the Dussehra festivities this year, he informed.
He said that State Government is making efforts to make the festival a global event and added that the State is recovering from the aftermath of the disaster and is now ready to welcome tourists to Kullu and Manali and gave the credit of expedited efforts of restoration and rehabilitation to Chief Minister Thakur Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu after the natural calamity. He said that travel time from Chandigarh to Kullu has been reduced from six hours to four hours and added that 13 out of fifteen tunnels were open to commuters.
The flights from Amritsar, Chandigarh and Delhi to Kullu were operating to facilitate tourists, said Thakur. Ms Anu Ranjan Dy. Director General Indian Council for Cultural Relations detailed about the support being provided by ICCR and cultural troupes performing in the festival. Shashi Pal Negi Assistant Commissioner to Deputy Commissioner Kullu welcomed the guests and briefed them about the background of the event. Special guests from Embassies, Ms. Nandita Gupta, Advisor, Government of Himachal Pradesh, Sushil Kumar Singla Principal Resident Commissioner were present on the occasion.
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