Jaisalmer: A three-day desert festival will be organised from January 29 to 31 next year at Jaisalmer. The tourism department and Jaisalmer district administration have started preparations for the same. This time the programmes will have a new look and will be organised to attract more tourists.
The desert festival 2018 will begin on January 29 with the procession from Gadisar Lake and will reach Shaheed Poonam Singh Stadium where it will be formally inaugurated. This time kite festival and horse race will be organised.
A meeting was organised under the chairmanship of district collector Kailash Chand Meena on Sunday to discuss preparations of the desert festival with other officials. SP Gaurav Yadav and officials of other departments were present along with Border Security Force officials and hoteliers.
The collector has directed officials to organise the festival with new attractions so that people coming to see this go back with complete satisfaction and good memories. He said there should be a better mix of regional colours and participation of local people and tourists. He directed tourism department to invite local renowned folk artists along with folk artists from Bollywood, Gujarat, Punjab and Haryana.
He also asked officials to make all necessary arrangements by taking help of other departments. Meena asked for sufficient mix of folk culture of western Rajasthan and region and said that process of all competitions that will be organised during the desert festival should be clear and transparent.
He directed the deputy director, tourism to get permission by sending letters to senior officers for air warrior drill and Akash Ganga by the Air Force and BSF camel tattoo show etc. He stressed on organising kite flying and horse race at Sam and directed officials for proper publicity.
The collector also directed municipal council commissioner to launch special campaign to make the city clean and cattle-free. He directed police to set right the traffic arrangements in the city and have a dress code for taxi drivers. He asked tehsildar to clean Sam dunes. SP Gaurav Yadav expressed the need to decide a theme for festival and suggested 'Beti Bachao Beti Padhao' or any other topic.
Tourism deputy director Bhanu Pratap informing about the proposed programmes said that on January 29 the procession will proceed from lake to the stadium and on the first day turban tying, Moomal Mahindra and other cultural programmes will be held in the evening. On 30th camel decoration, tug-of-war, tattoo show and cultural programmes will be organised.
On the concluding day camel race at Sam and cultural programmes and fireworks in evening are proposed. Prior to this, a cultural programme will be held at Kuldhara. Suggestions received to make the festival attractive will be implemented.
