GUWAHATI: Pandemic may come and go, North East Festival is here to stay. After successful completion of seven editions, this year 8th North East Festival will be held at Radisson Blu, Guwahati on 19th & 20 December.
Following all the Covid19 protocols and guidelines, this year the festival will be organized with minimum human presence and broadcasted on all over the globe through digital platforms.
Due to the pandemic North East’s first and foremost source of income and livelihood, tourism has been affected severely and everything has come to a standstill. The focus of the festival will be Growth Agenda for North East Post Covid19. A new entity NEF Ideation Conclave will have a series of discussion sessions. Success stories of North East Youth – Session will have prominent personalities of the region such as Zubeen Garg, Anshu Jemsepa, Armstrong Palme, Hima Das, Larsing Ming, Riyan Parag Das, Niti Deb and many others speaking about their journey. A session Market linkage on Agriculture will have Farmer producing companies of the NER interacting with Buyers from outside, a B2B Meet on Tourism will be organized wherein tourism stakeholders of North East will interact with prominent tour operators of the country. A session on Make in North East will have prominent investors in the NER such as NRL, Patanjali, ITC etc will share their experience of investment in the region. Some successful Start Ups of the region will share their story and interact.
A virtual walk through of North East Festival, will be showcased at 4 PM on both the evenings, will present North East tourism destinations, Festivals such as Hornbill, Sangai, Tawang Festival etc, cuisines of the region, dance forms, crafts and the tribes of the region to give a feel of the region. Evening Cultural programme will showcase dance forms of the North East, Spectacular Fashion show by top designers and models of the region and NEF musical evenings will have Zubeen Garg, Soulmate and other top musical icons of the region performing to a global audience.
Assam Govt led by Chief Minister Shri Sarbananda Sonowal is the host State. The Inaugural Session on Development Agenda for North East will be about highlighting the positive works done by the various Chief Ministers of the region in the presence of Union DoNER Minister, Dr. Jitendra Singh. The programme will be live streamed in Facebook and Youtube links of North East Festival and can be seen across the globe. Special promotion of North East Festival is planned in major cities of the Country and specially in the South East Asian Countries. More than 2 lakh digital footfalls are expected.
“North East Festival over the years have been able to create a positive perception about the region. This time focus is to highlight the strength of North East as an investment destination and focus on the region as an ideal tourism destination post Covid. The Virtual North East Festival will aim at creating a market linkage for North Eastern products and will try to motivate youngsters of the region for entrepreneurship, sports and other activities” said Mr Shyamkanu Mahanta, Organiser- in- Chief, North East Festival.
The North East Festival is an attempt to showcase and create awareness about India’s North East and to promote entrepreneurship and tourism. One of the major aims of the festival is an attempt to attract tourism and investments and create positive vibes during these trying times.
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