Cultural fest for reviving lost arts of Punjab

Amritsar, February 19

Preet Nagar in collaboration with the University of British Columbia and Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), UK, is organising a cultural festival from February 16 to 24.

The festival is a creative celebration of folk and contemporary arts forms. Artistes across the globe are invited to attend the cultural fiesta.

The festival hosted artiste par excellence Madan Gopal Singh, Sufi singer and poet, in the past weekend. Several traditional activities, including kite flying, puppetry shows and folk performances, were also organised.

Organisers Samia Singh and Ratika Singh said the aim of the festival was to invite more artistes to this festival, which was situated right in the middle of two cross-border culture capitals of Amritsar and Lahore.

“The purpose is to promote traditional art forms of the region as well as provide a platform to the artistes, who will come to share their particular forms and genres. We will also have collaboration with the University of British Columbia and members of the Arts and Humanities Research Council, UK, who will conduct sessions and workshops with the artistes,” said Samia.

Preet Nagar also offers its prestigious residency programme for artistes across the world and it has hosted over 200 artistes in the past five years. Currently, two resident artistes have made Preet Nagar their home.

“One is from Bangalore and another from Vancouver, Canada. The festival also aims to promote our residency programme and aspires to host many more artistes,” added Samia. — TNS