Culture tsars often scratch their heads at India’s curious kismet of having mind-boggling riches in traditional arts and architecture, and yet scrambling to draw adequate attention to them. One answer is in marrying the two—destination cultural festivals at old structures. The concept isn’t new. The Madhya Pradesh government, for one, has hosted an annual dance festival at Khajuraho since 1975. Not long after, the Natyanjali Festival was started at Chidambaram. This weekend, the 20th Rajasthan International Folk Festival is being hosted at Jodhpur’s Mehrangarh fort. The options to replicate such efforts across the country are in the hundreds, but surprisingly few are actually nurtured beyond a decade. Let us know if you think what’s lacking is smart publicity.
