‘Gajapati Utsav’ inaugurated

The ‘Gajapati Utsav’ the three-day cultural festival of Gajapati district is continuing at the district headquarter town Paralakhemundi since January 08. 

It was inaugurated on Friday evening by the State Cabinet Minister Damodar Raut. The Berhampur MP, Siddhant Mohapatra, Mohana MLA Chakradhar Paika, chairman of the organising committee and Paralakhemundi MLA K.Narayan Rao, Zilla Parishad president, Y. Ramchandra Rao and Gajapati Collector, Prakash Dash were present during the inauguration ceremony.

This cultural festival is the culmination of similar cultural festivals of smaller scale organised at panchayat and block level in the district during past week.

Through these grass root level cultural festivals local talents were selected for this district level cultural festival. The organising committee of the festival had first chosen talents from the panchayat level competitions, who were again put to test at block level ceremony. The talents picked from the block level cultural festivals are to perform in the ‘Gajapati Utsav’.

Cultural troupes from other parts of the State and outside the State are also taking part in this cultural festival. The East Zone Cultural Centre, Kolkata has brought in cultural troupes from outside the State to perform in this festival.  

An exhibition of traditional handicraft has also been organised near the venue of the festival. The inaugural evening started with recitation of vedic chants by a young talent of Gajapati district, Anurag Nayak. There was Odissi recital by ‘Nrutya Dham’ of Bhubaneswar. Modern dance recitals by Nataraj Dance Troupe of Paralakhemundi and troupe from Ganjam district set the mood of the youths attending the show. Members of the ‘Utkal Hitaisini’ of Paralakhemundi performed Sambalpuri folk dance.

Tribal dance troupe from Nuagarh block of the district enthralled the audience with their performance on stage. The second evening of the cultural festival also comprised of an entertaining cocktail of traditional and modern song and dance performances by troupes of the district and outside.

Source: The Hindu