The Festival of India will offer twice the cultural celebration this summer.
For the first time in Thunder Bay, the Festival of India will expand into a two-day event, adding a new colour festival Saturday July 23.
Traditionally, the colour festival celebrates the arrival of spring and the passing of winter. With a slight shift in purpose, the festival is now a reminder to throw away bad feelings and worries to the wind, by tossing colourful powders at each other.
“The colours represent the colours of life,” Jani said. “The colour festival also represents forgetting about our differences, and being in a joyful mood with each other and to celebrate life.”
The plant-based and non-toxic coloured-powder is made from cornstarch.
The weekend will feature a line-up of 40 live performances, including musicians, dancers, yoga instructors and a lot of bright colours.
“My experience with the festival of colours is that right from the young children up to the old age everybody will enjoy this festival,” he said.
A thousand-year-old tradition will take place Sunday, as people will pull a mechanical chariot around the festival area. A live band will be performing in front of the chariot as they circle the festival.
Jani said the chariot parade represents the universal love and brotherhood, “meaning we are pulling the love toward each other.”
In addition to the parade, people will have the opportunity to learn about life, culture and philosophy of India through nearly 100 exhibits.
As well as two days of yoga performances called the Yoga Meltdown. Local yoga teachers will guide people through the Meltdown.
“It will be the largest yoga class in Northwestern Ontario. There will be about 500 to 800 people doing yoga at the same time,” Jani said.
During the two-day event, two special cooks from New York and Edmonton who will be preparing food for the festivalgoers. There will also be a cook from Toronto showing people how to prepare Indian food.
Organizers will be handing out passports to be stamped at each booth visited. There will be a grand prize given for a full stamped card.
“The idea of the whole festival is to bring the community together,” Jani said.
Organizers will further detail the activities at this year’s Festival of India during a news conference scheduled for Tuesday at Masala Grille restaurant.