Mysuru Winter Festival to draw tourists back this year

• District Officers seek approval for Rs. 50 lakh; tentative date from Dec. 24 to Jan. 2, 2023
• Flower Show, illumination, Police Band, sound-less firecrackers at Mysore Palace

Mysore/Mysuru: With COVID-19 fear going away, the Mysuru Winter Festival will be back this year as the District Administration has been planning to host various events to attract tourists towards Mysuru during the Christmas holidays and New Year celebrations. The tentative date for the festival is from Dec. 24 to Jan. 2, 2023.

Mysuru Deputy Commissioner Dr. K.V. Rajendra told media persons yesterday that the District Administration has sent a letter to the Tourism Department and the Department of Kannada and Culture to facilitate the organising of the Winter Festival (Magi Utsav) to boost tourism in the year end. Sources said that the Festival will be celebrated in a grand manner after a break of two years.

A proposal has also been sent last week to the State Government for a grant of Rs. 50 lakh to organise the festival and the approval is awaited. “Once the approval comes, Mysuru District Minister S.T. Somashekar will be consulted on the nature and scale of the festival, venues and activities. The Winter Festival will be jointly organised by the District Administration, Mysore Palace Board and the Tourism Department,” sources said.

Though the officials are tight-lipped about the venue and the events to be held as part of the Winter Festival, Mysore Palace Board Deputy Director T.S. Subramanya told Star of Mysore this morning that a Winter Festival will be held in Palace premises to draw tourists with various attractions including a Flower Show from Dec. 24 to Jan. 2.

“The Flower Show will be inaugurated on Dec. 24 at 5 pm and the entry will be open from 10 am to 9 pm. Over 4 lakh flowers will be on display at the show and the main attraction will be a replica of Kashi Vishwanath Temple,” he said. The other floral attractions include a Vande Bharat Train, Kambala of Karavali region after Kantaara movie fame, Cheetahs imported to India from Namibia, etc.” he added.

Cultural programmes will be held every day and the Palace will be illuminated daily from 7 pm to 9 pm. “On Dec. 31 Police Band will perform Karnataka and English Music in Palace premises from 11 pm to 12 midnight. As we welcome the New Year, an attractive display of sound-less firecrackers will be held,” Subramanya said.

Though the Winter Festival has been an attractive affair in Mysuru after Dasara from 2017, the celebrations were dropped later due to various reasons including the COVID pandemic that hit the region badly. The first Winter Festival was held in 2017 from Dec. 23 to Jan. 1 at various locations with a host of events to attract tourists. In 2020, the Mysore Palace had organised the Festival from Dec. 24 to Jan. 1 inside its premises.

In the past, the Winter Festival has been received well by the tourists. Some of the activities that were a crowd-puller are movie screenings at Manasagangothri’s Amphitheatre, cake festival, heritage cycle rides and Makkala Habba. In all, over 67 activities, including flower show, cultural programmes, bicycle ride and 3D mapping on Mysore Palace were held.

A day-long ‘Open Street Festival’ was organised at D. Devaraja Urs Road where the busy road was made traffic-free. Public were allowed to enjoy shopping, playing games and eating from food stalls on the stretch in leisure. The open street festival was held on Krishnaraja Boulevard and this too had attracted the people.