Folk music and dance rock Spring Fest

The artistes performed a wide range of dance forms like Dhumpa, Oshakothi, Krushna Leela, Rama Leela, Bharat Leela at Spring Festival, organised by ALL India Radio (AIR), Berhampur.

The artistes also blew the Jodi Shankha, a popular musical instrument.

"The festival was aimed at popularising the ancient folk dances among the younger generations and provide a common platform to the famous folk artistes of the district," Hrusikesh Panighrahi, the programme head of AIR Berhampur, said.

He said all the folk dance and music, which was performed during the festival held over the weekend, would be preserved in the audio format in AIR Berhampur archive.

As many as 70 folk artistes, including award-winners, performed for over four hours in the open pandal with packed audience. The main attraction of the show was the performances of the folk dances and music by some of the award-winning folk artistes from Badakushasthali, Burupada, Bada Pankalabadi (Buguda), Pratapgiri (Patapur), Mahanalla (Digapahandi), Ambagaon (Chudangapur) and Digapanahndi.

"We have taken only one portion of the lengthy folk dance to perform here, because the time was short", said a Rama Leela artist, pointing out that the dance form in its entirety takes up to a few days to be completed.