NEW DELHI: Buoyed by the success of cultural festivals at Mehrauli and Shahpur Jat, the Delhi government has planned more events on the similar lines at Hauz Khas complex, Quli Khan’s tomb and Lal Kot ruins. Senior officials behind the proposal said that the arts, cultural, and language department had been working on the project and dates for the functions would be fixed soon after finalisation of the concept note.
Including heritage walks, musical gigs, archival image exhibitions, live performances, workshop, fair by traditional artisans, the department will hold a gala event at Hauz Khas for which it will rope in a popular Bollywood singer. The event may take place in December.
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“The format will more or less remain the same. We will have more diverse performances and sessions to entertain people. We will organise exhibition, based on archival photos and documents about the history of the cluster of monuments and ancient water reservoir in Hauz Khas,” said an official.
The food court offering traditional cuisines will be an added attraction.
“The department also has a plan to hold an event at Quli Khan’s tomb in Mehrauli Archaeological Park. The concept for Lal Kot programme is also being worked upon,” the official said.
Two-day autumn festival in Shahpur Jat took place on October 19 and 20. The three-day Mehrauli Monsoon event was held in August. Another in the series of seasonal cultural events will be ‘Basant Utsav’, heralding the beginning of Basant (spring). It will be organised in February.
The initiative is part of the mega plan to give a new lease of life to historical structures in the national capital and promote local art and cultural heritage. The government had planned to organise such events regularly at different tombs and heritage buildings across the city on every weekend and frequent cultural events showcasing the city’s culture and history such as mushairas, kavi sammelans, dastangoi sessions, exhibitions, plays, folk dances and musical events on Saturdays were on the cards.
The department was supposed to organise these events with the help of Sahitya Kala Parishad and language academies, which have expertise in curating such functions.
“The earlier plan to hold weekly events didn’t materialise. The present effort follows from the old plan. Our emphasis to promote social or cultural events at historically important sites,” he said.