SONEPUR: The colorful Subarna Lok Mahotsav that concluded here on Wednesday resonated with socio-cultural messaging.The FIH Odisha Hockey Men’s World Cup 2023 also dominated its narrative. The four-day festival witnessed performances by over 200 artistes from several districts of Odisha besides a ‘Lavni’ group from Nagpur, Maharashtra. A city fest was organised where the denizens enjoyed performances of groups like Rapper Big Deal and Prince Dance Group.
Apart from the performances, a Pallishree Mela was also organised by ORMAS at the venue. A footfall of more than 5000 people was recorded on each day of the festival which is so far considered the highest attendance the folk festival has ever witnessed.Though Subarna Lok Mohatsav is organised every year around April, it was scheduled in January this year to celebrate the spirit of hockey along with folk arts.
“We were overwhelmed by the crowd which was huge for a small town like Sonepur. The festival was organised on a large scale this year to deliver new performances to the people. Our efforts to popularise hockey across the town as well as gram panchayats were no less,” Sonepur collector Aboli Naravane said.
The promotion of hockey began in the district around a month back.
The administration had launched a campaign ‘Subarnapur hela Hockeypur’ and a vehicle called the ‘Hockey Ratha’ moved across all the 109 gram panchayats of the district. Sarpanch of each gram panchayat was given a hockey stick to popularise the game as part of the campaign. The ratha covered all the panchayats and ended with the inaugural ceremony of the World Cup on January 11.
The screening of the inaugural programme was organised at the Rameshwar Ghat followed by several cultural performances.A massive rice husk mosaic made by artist Sudarsan Pattnaik on the theme of hockey was huge draw. Apart from the collector who performed a dance, SP, Vigilance, Sarah Sharma sang a folk song and Sonepur ADM, SN Dash performed a magic show during the festival.