15th National Youth Festival to begin at Bhubaneswar Friday

The dye has been cast for the 15th National Youth Festival beginning here Friday to showcase the country’s rich and multi-faceted culture.

The five-day extravaganza, likely to be attended by about 5000 delegates from across the country, would offer a feast of colourful and delightful programmes to culture buffs and art connoisseurs in the state.

Among the main attractions at the mega show would be showering of flower petals from helicopter on the main venue at Kalinga Stadium here with an air force vehicle displaying a unique formation, official sources said today.

Billed as a major event to concretise national integration, the festival would also feature demonstrations by dare devils apart from traditional dances of Orissa like Odissi, Paika, Ghumura and Ranapa.

Adding glitz and glamour to the celebrations would be stars like Usha Uthup, Hans Raj Hans and Babul Supriyo. Actor Suniel Shetty and Olympic medal winning wrestler Vijender Singh would also participate in the festivities.

While final touches are being given to arrangements by the authorities, about 3000 participants have already arrived here from different states, sources said.

Elaborate security arrangements have been made for the festival with deployment of over 5000 police personnel at various places as the programmes, divided into competitive and non-competitive events, would be held at six different venues simultaneously.