Puri: The Puri Beach Carnival, a festival of gaiety, glamour and fun in the famous seaside resort of Odisha, broke the internet on its debut.
The hashtag-#BeachCarnivalPuri-used in the official Twitter account of cultural event (@PuriCarnival) was trending in India's top 10 trends on its debut day. The hashtag even secured 2nd position pan-India reaching more than 9 lakh people in a little over two hours.
Another hashtag #NeverB4Moment, which was also used to promote the carnival that alone reached 12 lakh.
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The official Twitter account came upon a hashtag named #BeachCarnivalPuri, after a unanimous discussion with the followers. Within a very short time, this was used by a considerable number of followers, including some top influencers, which lead to the trending of #BeachCarnivalPuri.
"We started tweeting at 8:30 am and by 8:35 am we got listed at 3rd position on the top trends directly beating #RaeesDay and #KaabilDay that are due to release on 26th January. With close to 3000+ tweets from people around the country, we managed to get more than 23 lakhs impressions in just 5 hours ", said Shreekant Kumar, founder of Digituall which handled the social media campaign of the fest.
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By the end of the festival, we had received total 74 lakh impressions including 9 lakh+ on #PuriBeachCarnival, 12 lakh + on #NeverB4Moment and 24 lakh + on #BeachCarnivalPuri, he added. Some verified accounts including BhubaneswarBuzz and LogicalOdia and renowned personalities like Padma Shree Nila Madhab Panda used the hashtag.
What is more surprising that, even though it is a small event unlike Rath Yatra, it received an overwhelming impression this year. As the Rath Yatra is a globally acclaimed fete, it had received 74 lakh impressions, Kumar added.
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The Beach Carnival Puri was held from 20th to 26th of January. The carnival witnessed Beach Rugby, Martial Arts, Fire shows, Water Sports, Paramotoring, Dog show and many other shows which were showcased for the first time in Puri. Apart from that, a gala star night event was organised every evening where Ollywood's Abhisek, Elina Samantray, Babushan, Abhijeet Majumdar and Bollywood celebrities like Tusshar Kapoor, Govinda Big Dhillon, Ikka, Banjara Girls, MJ5 had performed.
Apart from the star-studded evenings, boat racing, camel race, rangoli competition, sand art and many more were some other features which became the cynosure of all eyes during the six-day cultural extravaganza.