Come! Enjoy city fest with Hockey World Cup in Bhubaneswar

BHUBANESWAR: The temple city will turn into a capital of good times between December 1 and 16 as the Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) and Odisha Tourism are jointly organizing ‘.FEST’ (Bhubaneswar City Festival) for 16 days. The event will coincide with Men’s Hockey World Cup 2018 which also ends on December 16.
The festival '.FEST' (Food, Entertainment, Storytelling and Trails) includes international street food festival, entertainment programmes, international story telling festival and different trails in the city.Besides the Hockey World Cup, the tourists and locals can enjoy their time in the festival.
The logo and event calendar of .FEST were unveiled on Sunday. “The city will see athletes and guests from around the world during this period, making it the perfect occasion to showcase the cultural bounty of the city and state. Hence, we came up with the idea of organizing such festival,” said Niranjan Pujari, minister of housing and urban development, while unveiling the logo and calendar.
International street food festival will showcase global cuisine of 16 countries, Indian food and authentic Odia cuisine at 24 food stalls in the event between December 1 and 16. In entertainment segment, top singers and performers of the country like Vishal and Shekhar, Shankar Ehsaan Loy, Shreya Ghoshal, Farhan Akhtar, Shaan, Sona Mohapatra, Rituraj Mohanty, Noorani Sisters and Krishna Beura will give live performances at the Exhibition ground here from 7pm to 10 pm every night during the 16-day festival.
Storytelling festival will be conducted from 2pm to 8pm between December 6 and 10 at Buddha Jayanti Park, Indira Gandhi Park and Kharavela Park here. International and national storytellers from different cultural traditions such as Wangari Grace, Ruth Kirkpatrick, Paula Martin, Eric Borrias, Sabrina Arasum, Deepa Kiran, Neelesh Mishra and Himanshu Bajpai will tell stories to the audience.
'Bhubaneswar Walks' is an umbrella initiative which provides various options to the visitors to explore the city through theme based curated walks and trails categorized into heritage, art, nature and museum walks. Bhubaneswar Art Trail, Ekamra Walks, Chandaka Cycle Tour, Nandankanan Nature Walks, Jain Walks and several other walks to explore the best out of the city between December 1 and 16.
Tickets for the festival will be available at booking sites. People can log on to www.bhubaneswar.me to get details about the festival, said city mayor A N Jena.