UNB, Dhaka: After a long hiatus, the Ganga-Jamuna Cultural Festival returns October 1st (Friday) to the Shilpakala Academy, commemorating the birth centenary of the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and the golden jubilee of independent Bangladesh.
However, the Indian cultural groups will not be present in this year’s festival due to the pandemic, so the local counterparts will be carrying the stage. Ganga-Jamuna Sangskritik Utsab Parshad organised the eighth edition of the festival in association with Cultural Ministry of Bangladesh, India-Bangladesh Foundation and BSA.
The last edition of the festival comprising artists’ collectives from the lands along which the eponymous rivers flow, Indians and Bangladeshis, was held in 2019, at which point it had been an annual event for eight years.
The convening committee of this year’s festival held a press conference at the seminar room of the Academy on Wednesday.
Playwright Mir Zahid Hasan, member of the committee and convener of the campaign sub-boards, read out a written statement presided over by Golam Kuddus, convener of the festival and vice-president of Sammilita Sangskritik Jote.
The 12-day festival will be held from October 1 to 12 at the main auditorium hall of Bangladesh Shilpakala National Theater, Experimental Theater Hall, Studio Theater Hall, National Music-Dance-Recitation Auditorium and the open stage of the National Theater Hall.
“We were unable to hold the festival last year because of the Coronavirus pandemic. In the last one and a half years, we have lost many cultured people in our country, cultural activists and countless people. We, the Ganga-Jamuna Cultural Festival Board, convey our utmost respect for all,” the organizers said at the press conference.
They further stated that this year’s event would showcase 36 theatrical performances by 36 different theatre groups from Dhaka and beyond. Music, choreography, and recitation will be performed by 44 music recitations and dance troupes in the auditorium, and the festival will showcase around 3500 artists from 140 noted and promising cultural groups.
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