PALAKKAD: The fourth Grand Kerala Shopping Festival (GKSF) will be held from December 1 to January 15. This edition of the GKSF promises prizes worth 101 kg of gold and the participation of 6,000 traders and commercial establishments.
Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan will officially inaugurate the festival at the Indira Gandhi Municipal Stadium here on December 1. Tourism Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan will preside over the function.
Various cultural programmes will be held as a part of the festival at the stadium grounds on December 1.
Cultural programmes
The main attraction of the inaugural function will be a performance by artistes from Egypt.
A classical dance performance incorporating the culture and tradition of Palakkad by danseuse Manjula Ramasway and group will add gala to the show. There will also be a music nite by singers K S Chithra, Mano, Madhu Balakrishnan, Manjari and Vinod Seshadri and mimicry by Ayyappa Byju.
The programme will begin with a performance by Mattanur Shankarankutty.
Participants
The Tourism Department is organizing the festival with the cooperation of the Finance, Industries, Public Distribution and Local Administration departments. The commercial establishments which wish to register themselves for the GKSF have been divided into three categories.
If a commercial establishment invests `25,000, it can become a gold partner, if it invests `5,000, it would become a sliver partner and the one which invests `1,000 will be included in the general category.
“Last year, 5,008 commercial establishments had registered for the shopping festival. This time around 5,400 establishments have already registered themselves and it is bound to increase,” GKSF director K N Satheesh said.
First prize winner to get 1 kg of gold
The first prize winner will get 1 kg of gold and second prize is half a kg of gold for six persons.
There will also be six weekly draws, the first prize for which will be 25 sovereigns of gold for six persons. The second prize will be 10 sovereigns of gold for 12 persons and the third prize will be 5 sovereigns of gold for 48 persons every week.Moreover, gold has been included in the scratch-and-win prizes also. The inauguration of the valedictory function will be held in Alappuzha on January 29.