SCZCC’s Ishanya festival to showcase cultural traditions of NE states

NAGPUR: City-based South Central Zonal Cultural Centre (SCZCC) is set to organize ‘Octave festival’ from March 31 to April 2. The festival will showcase crafts, clothes and dance forms of North Eastern states of India. The festival, which is being organized with the name ‘Ishanya’ by SCZCC has the mandate to propagate cultural traditions of North East.
“We are holding the festival with the support of North East Zonal Cultural Centre, Dimapur,” Sudarshan Patil, deputy director of SCZCC, told TOI. The festival has been designed especially by the Ministry of Culture to provide a platform to artists and craftsmen of the eight North Eastern states, including Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura and Arunachal Pradesh. The first edition of Octave festival was organized in New Delhi in 2006. Before this, SCZCC had organized the event in 2008 at Mumbai and at Hyderabad and Bangalore in 2010.
“Around 150 artists will perform various dance forms of North Eastern states like Thangta and Lahasha from Manipur, Afilipuhu from Nagaland, Lankum and Bihu from Assam, Ghatu from Sikkim. The centre has made special sound and light arrangements for these performances to bring out the beauty and aesthetics of these forms,” said Shashank Dande, project officer at SCZCC.
The three-day festival will be inaugurated by officiating director of SCZCC Dr Sajit EN at the premises on March 31. The performances will be held at Muktangan, the open air stage of the centre from 6.30pm onwards.
SCZCC occupies a distinct position in the city’s cultural calendar but is currently witnessing a lull in the absence of a full-time director. It could not hold the popular Orange City Craft Mela this year and another of its monthly musical event Bramhanaad will now take place only between October and March. “It has been decided not to hold this monthly event during the summer and rainy season,” said Dande.