6 Aug : A meeting was convened today under the Chairmanship of Shri Ram Niwas, Home Secretary-cum-Secretary Culture, Chandigarh Administration to finalise the modalities of organizing the 1st “Chandigarh Craft Mela” which was attended by the Deputy Commissioner, MD/CITCO, Commissioner, MCC, SSP, Director Tourism, Director Hospitality Director Culture, Director Museum, Chief Engineer, Chief Architect, Director North Zone Culture Centre, Principal, Chandigarh College of Architecture.
The Fair will be organised on the pattern of famous Surajkund Mela by the Chandigarh Administration in collaboration with North Zone Culture Centre (NZCC) from 24th October to 2nd November.
This will be a mega event and will showcase the best handloom and handicrafts traditions of the country including the myriad forms of folk culture and traditional cuisines from different states. The craft fair would be organized at Kalagram for which lay out plans have already been prepared by the Architect Department of Chandigarh Administration. There will be 131 National and State winning craft persons from different states who will display their prize winning items in the craft fair. The “Theme State” for the First Chandigarh Crafts Fair would be Kashmir. Kashmiri food, various dance forms of Kashmir and the traditional handloom & handicraft of Kashmir will be the main theme of the craft fair. However, there will be sizeable representation from all states especially North Eastern states. There will be cultural programme on a specially designed stage during the festival as well as evening performances by various cultural zones of the country. During this festival there will be a special dance performance by Devyani, an eminent Bharatnatyam exponent from France and also a fashion show on folk and traditional theme.
The administration also plans to involve the entire city in this mega event, therefore, it has been conceptualized to provide shopping opportunity to the residents as well as tourists during this festival. For this purpose, various traders’ associations will be requested to organise a 10 days’ shopping festival in Sector 17 and other main markets of the city. Sector 17 would be illuminated during this 10 days festival. There will be special cultural programme at the Sector 17 Plazza to attract more and more tourists. All the hotels and restaurants would be associated during this event to organize special food festivals and theme based performances to give a festive mood to the city. The objective of the administration is to project this10 days event as a major shopping-cum-tourism experience on the pattern of Dubai and Singapore Shopping Festival.