A festival that became the talk of the town - The Shillong Cherry Blossom Festival

New Delhi [India], December 7 (ANI/GIPR): Believe me, the craze was all real. The festival has stirred the crowd of the state and beyond for the entire month of November, with the season of blossoms that sprinkled the city in pink. It was branded as the 'Most Happening Festival of Shillong' which was awaited by all.
The announcement already had the people talking with its dashing and appealing performer line-ups that most people would never imagine seeing live from the Local YouTube sensations like Jessie Lyngdoh, DJ Wanshan, Shane, DJ Zethan, Rum and Monkeys, B4NSHAN, Lily Sawian to international artists such as PYRA, CNR Mafia, DJ Mari Ferrari and PIXY.
The festival kickstarted from November 25 to November 27 with programmes divided between Literary fest at Wards Lake and Polo grounds of the same festival. It got a lot of press for confusion between the two venues but well as they say 'Any kind of negative publicity is still publicity', the most anticipated festival became the talk of the town among the localities as well as the rest of the country.
But I would say the festival was rather a 'Big Hit' with obvious small hurdles along the way but this was one of the first major festivals in the city so maybe let's loosen up a little and give the organizers Rockski EMG a pat on their back for pulling off such a package of entertainment to our 'Sleepy Town' within a span of one month with their international standard of production and lineup of 4 International Artists amidst travel restrictions.
The performers' line-up was pretty impressive for a festival in a small town, artists came to perform from the UAE, Portugal, Thailand and Korea. Even though the highlighted acts were that of international artists I would say the spotlight was rather taken by our homegrown local talents. They put up some good performances given the fact that most of them had their debut stage performances at the festival. The festival grounds had an undeniable amount of synergy between the crowd and the performers that were magical to watch. "Having the crowd sing along to our songs word by word is success for us" Says Jessie Lyngdoh, one of Shillong's upcoming Pop Stars.
Various other competitions provided platforms to the youths to showcase their talents, as well as major designers such as Arif Mukhim, Tatyana Momin, and well-known models like Zuchobeni Tungoe, Marjorie Noreen Dunai from the Northeast, who were also part of the show.
Many had their eyes on the Local Wine and Beer Making competitions and Korean/Japanese food competitions as the voting were done by people's choice. The festival also had various stalls ranging from food, handmade products, local products, and art that were available for attendees to buy from. The food stalls at the festival were at a different game of their own, it was food paradise for meat- eaters and to those open to trying new things as it had a various range of food from traditional to Japanese.
The people who attended the festival ranged from locals to people travelling from around the country just to be part of it. I spoke to a couple of tourists who travelled specially to attend the festival and they said 'I couldn't believe something like this happens in Shillong' and they couldn't believe that the people of Shillong were so civilised, and that is true the crowd were amazing but just because of some we are again branded as the 'always aggressive crowd'. This festival had me wondering about the kind of news and media we consume in the state, the biggest event was not even broadcasted once at any local channels and a small incident at the entry was depicted as almost an act of terrorism.
The Shillong Cherry Blossom 2021 was undeniably a successful festival and the flock of the crowd who attended the festival says it all. I am really glad something as huge as this festival happened at our home grounds, hoping this would ignite more festivals with more platforms for local talents.
Until next year.
This story is provided by GIPR. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/GIPR)