NEW DELHI: Its raining festivals this time of the year in capital, on the one hand is IITF, for the music lover there is Jazz festival and what about the children?
Well a six-day long International Children’s Festival of Performing Arts is currently on at Bal Bhavan- the festival opened on Saturday. The International Children Festival with its theme “Lets Give Peace a Chance” had Lok Sabha Speaker Mr. Somnath Chatterjee as the chief guest.
Speaking on the occasion the speaker lauded the initiative taken by Ryan International and Bal Bhavan Society and said that such festivals help people from various cultures and ethnic groups come together and share their views thus giving peace a chance.
The festival is going to be a six day long affair and had more than 5000 children from more than 30 countries participating in the festival. Children from countries such as Canada, Croatia, Israel, Germany, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia, Russia, and Zimbabwe have come to spread the message of peace.
The opening day saw a combined performance on the Indian patriotic song “Vande Matram” by all the participating children. After this there were individual performances by children of various states such as Goa, Rajasthan, and Gujarat, this was followed by performances from Poland, Germany, Romania and Sri Lanka.
The festival is being organized by Ryan International in collaboration with the National Bal Bhavan Society of India. The six day long festival will feature over 200 performances by the participating children from various countries in the filed of dance, drama, mime, music and puppetry. Various shows of the festival will be organized at different venues which include Kamani Auditorium, Sri Ram centre for performing arts, Bal Bhavan and LTG auditorium till November 28.
The opening ceremony of the festival was attended by diplomats and other dignitaries from the participating countries.
The festival is just not limited to performing arts but will also serve as global village blending various cultures and mementos from different countries will be sold.