THUNDER BAY – The Festival of India and the Festival of Colours are headed back to their traditional stomping grounds.
Both events, the first scheduled for Saturday, the second for Sunday, will head back to Marina Park, after two years of a hybrid drive-through model staged on the pavement of the Canadian Lakehead Exhibition grounds.
Dr. Prashant Jani, who has organized the two events for more than a decade, said it’s great to be back to some semblance of normalcy and able to showcase the culture, traditions, music and food of his homeland to the broader community in the way he’s always envisioned the two back-to-back events.
Both events are fun and colourful and full of entertainment.
It starts at 3 p.m. on Saturday with the Festival of India.
“This is the 13th annual Festival of India and this year we’re adding some new additions for the festival. One is the update of the festival chariot. We have updated the chariot with an 18-foot high dome and it’s going to be a spectacular chariot parade starting at 3 o’clock,” Jani said.
“We have musicians coming from Winnipeg and the singers are coming in from Toronto. They’re going to sing and everybody pulls the chariot with a rope and we go around Marina Park. The chariot represents universal love and brotherhood, which means we are bringing love and peace and harmony to the community.”
More entertainment follows, though the free Indian inspired food is also a hit for the crowd, who get a chance to sample the tastes of the second-most populous country on Earth.
Food will also be available for purchase.
“The idea is that cultural Vedas, which is the ancient culture from Indian, teaches that the more you celebrate life through food, music and dances, the more it brings positivity into the community,” Jani said.
“There are a lot of negative things to look at, but something like this definitely brings the positive energy into the community. After a long haul of COVID-19 and recession and layoffs, something like this, which is a free event, bringing free entertainment, it’s a wonderful positive energy for the town.”
On Sunday, the Festival of Colours is scheduled to begin at 4 p.m.
It might even be more fun than the Festival of India.
“The Festival of Colours is a thousands of years old tradition from India. When we throw the colours into the sky, it means to throw worries into the wind to make your life joyful and colourful,” Jani said. “Specifically, when you come to the Festival of Colours, you see a lot of young faces there. Our usual audience is between 13 and 23 and you the smiles and laughter. It’s wonderful to see on everybody’s face.”
There is a $10 charge to attend the Festival of Colours and colour packets will be sold on site.
