North East Festival 2013 in New Delhi review

The much awaited two day carnival “North East Festival 2013” finally showcased the regions authentic food, musical talents, ethnic dances, hand-looms, handicrafts etc., with flying colors.

Mr S.K Mahanta (Organizer-in-chief), the man behind the entire show!

The venue selected to materialize the event was decent in location and size, the ambiance of the event was lively, colorful, well organized and decorated enough to stir up the minds of the people to get them straight into the outdoor festivity mood. Chairs and dining tables were set up near the food stalls, water dispensers and disposable glasses were easily available around, performance stage was wonderfully built with proper lightning and sound system, good police security was deployed, ambulance and fire brigade stood by 24/7 for safety reasons. Everything was beautifully organized and well planned.

Approximately 3000 to 4000 people of mixed gentry attended the event; people of all age groups from students to working professionals to family groups to parents with kids to typical aunts and uncles attended the festival. The crowd largely constituted of North east people and North Indians with a little addition from other parts of India and abroad.

Five regional food stalls were put up; 2 from Nagaland (Nagaland Kitchen & Dzukou – the tribal kitchen), 1 from Sikkim, 1 from Assam (Khorika), 1 from Manipur (Rosang) and 1 from Tripura. All the food stalls showcased their sumptuous ethnic cuisines and delicacies of its own region. Arunachal, Meghalaya and Mizo food stalls were missing however, people did not feel its absence as some of the stalls even served their dishes and cuisines.

People were mostly and literally seen hogging pork meat, be it in the form of pork ribs, pork barbeque, pork momo, pork thali or pork khorika…. At one point, during peak dinner time, it seemed as if some kind of a pork eating festival was going on rather than North East Festival :-), which ever dining table you lay your eyes upon, it had plates of pork meat. People ate and ate so much at the event that almost all the food stalls were dried up before long and had to cook more than 3-4 times a day to relish the hunger of the customers who had attended the fest and totally had an appetite for North East food.

North Indians too, to be specific, did not take a back seat when it came to eating pork meat and trying out variants of North East cuisines. In one instance, a Sardarji and his family, devoid of any qualms, were seen trying out Atul Lahkar’s famous pork Khorika and Dzukou’s famous pork ribs :-).

In the evening, attendees were either seen basking in the glory of the food at the bistro or at the cultural evenings which showcased North East’s fashion show and musical talents. Cheers, claps and hoots continuously echoed in the open air when renowned North East personalities like Mary Kom, Adil Hussain, Zubin Garg etc. walked the ramp. Professional singers and noted musicians from the North East region like Guru Rewben Mashangva, Mami Varte, Zubin garg, Mami Varte, Alobo Naga, Lou Majaw etc further elevated the crowd to get into the trance of rock n’ roll.

The event undeniably was well organized and perfectly executed to a wonderful success and the man behind this success and iconic event is none other than Mr. S.K Mahanta who with a concept, vision and entrepreneurship have brought ‘ North East Festival 2013’ a grand success at the Indira Gandhi National Centre of Arts ground (IGNCA) Janpath, New Delhi on Fri, Nov 08th and Sat. 09th  2013. These two days will ever be remembered in the history of North East conglomeration in New Delhi for bringing awareness, promoting tourism, brotherhood, peace and unity. Cheers!

What could have been better?

To attract more people.

Arrangement of more chairs and dining tables.

No regional language/dialect on performance stage in the form of speech.

Lastly, performance of Papon & Soulmate.