First day, Saturday 26th November the competition started, blessed by the Chief Guest, Yogiraj Amarjyoti from Palampur. Young people from different places of Kullu district assembled at the Theatre ground to present their skills in Indian Classical Music – both vocal and instrumental, as well as in Classical Kathak dance. Of course, one would like to see more youngsters pursuing this beautiful art, but unfortunately, classical music needs a vigorous, patient and dedicated practice, something not to be found easily in our over busy, materialistic world. Still, more than 20 people participated in the competition, bringing joy to the guests, judges and occasional visitors to the Trust who decided to halt for a while and give themselves to the sounds of flute or sitar…

27th November, Sunday started with the solemn sounds of local trumpets, shehnais and drums… folk music and folk dances competition was in the program. It was very heartening to see, that in spite of the overall tendency of the young people to go ‘modern’, still Kullu district preserves its traditions with care and love. For the whole day groups of beautifully clad girls and boys in local traditional dresses were performing on the stage their songs and dances. Verily, judges had a hard task to pronounce the best team. Many groups represented Youth Clubs of their villages or cities. And it was good to see that the young people were fully enjoying their performance – dancing not for the pursuit of first prize, but for inner joy.

After all performances were over and judges made their choice, an award ceremony took place. All those young artists and teams who won the first prizes, will be later participating in the State level competition.