Konark Festival & International Sand Art Festival to kick-start tomorrow

The Konark Festival and the International Sand Art Festival will be held at Chandrabhaga Beach near the Sun Temple in Puri district from Sunday. The administration has almost completed all the required preparations for it.

The Odisha Tourism Department will organise the Konark Festival and the International Sand Art Festival from December 1 to 5. While the former celebrates the country’s classical dance forms, the latter gives a canvas to global sand artists.

The festival’s open-air stage with its soft golden lights, set against the backdrop of the 13th century Unesco World Heritage Site — Sun Temple in Konark will feature classic tales of devotion, love, and mythology.

All kinds of preparations including decoration work of the open-air stage, construction of attractive gates and lighting work have been completed. To make the festival more attractive this year, emphasis has been given to special decorations, cleanliness, traffic and security arrangements and drinking water facilities.

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The Tourism Department has announced a special tour package to attract visitors to the festivals. Puri Collector, SP and senior officials of the Tourism Department have made reviews of all the preparations ahead of the festival on Saturday.

As per sources, as many as eight sand artists from abroad and a total of 129 sand artists from the State and the country will take part in the International Sand Art Festival to shape their creativity in the sand. Several sand arts prepared by the sand artists will be showcased in as many as 35 stalls. Visitors will get an opportunity to witness these sand sculptures during the festival.

“Several programmes will be organised during the Konark Festival from December 1 to 5. Konark International Dance Festival is very much popular. We have also reviewed all the preparations for the International Sand Art Festival. All the preparations have reached the final stages. The minor issues have been identified and they will be immediately addressed. The traffic and all other restrictions will be announced tomorrow,” said Puri Collector Siddharth Shankar Swain.