January 13, 2019
Digha hosts three-day Folk Festival
The three-day Digha Folk Festival has been running from January 11. It will get over today. This is the second edition of the festival.
The festival is a place for exhibiting and selling handicrafts, and for the performance of folk performances. This year folk performances are being held from 6 PM to 8 PM.
Purba Medinipur, where Digha is located, is famous, along with Paschim Medinipur, for patachitra (storytelling through scroll painting) and madur weaving. And both have received the geographical indication (GI) tag.
Madur weavers from villages like Patashpur, Ramnagar, Bhagwanpur and Moyna, which are famous for the craft, have come to the Digha Folk Festival. Many of the artistes who have come are also taking part in workshops.
A few initiatives for folk artistes by the Bangla Government may be mentioned here. The 10 Rural Craft Hubs, developed by the State Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises and Textiles in association with the United National Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), have benefitted 3,000 handicraft artistes. The setting up of Rural Craft and Cultural Hubs (RCCH) has benefitted an additional 12,000 rural artistes.
Then there is the Lok Prasar Prakalpa for folk performers. Now, over 2 lakh folk artistes get a monthly stipend from the government and the State Government has given them musical instruments. Folk artistes are invited for paid performances at the programmes organised the government departments and for the promotion of government schemes through their songs and dances.
Source: Millennium Post
