Three-day Digha Folk Festival to be inaugurated on January 11

Kolkata: The second edition of three-day Digha Folk Festival will be inaugurated at the premises of Biswa Bangla Centre on January 11.

Patachitra of Chandipur and Madur artisans of East Midnapore will be present at the festival to showcase their products. There will be folk performances in the evening from 6pm to 8pm on all three days. Special attraction at the fair will be a musical trio — Oriental Mood from Denmark on January 11.

East Midnapore is famous for traditional Madur weaving and the story telling tradition of the Patachitra artists.

Both Madur and Patachitra have received the Geographical Indication (GI) tag.

Villages like Patashpur, Ramnagar, Bhagwanpur and Moyna are famous for Madur weaving. The artists who will come for the fair will take part in workshops that will be held during the festival.

It may be mentioned that the department of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises and Textiles (MSME and T) has developed 10 rural craft hubs in association with the UNESCO and this has benefitted 3,000 handicraft artists.

The setting up of Rural Craft and Cultural Hubs (RCCH) has benefitted an additional 12,000 rural artists.

After coming to power in 2011, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee decided to assist the folk artistes and artisans all over the state.

There are over 2 lakh folk artistes who now get a monthly stipend and the state government has given them musical instruments.

In the programmes organised by the state government departments, the folk artistes are invited to perform.