'Kumaripati Jawalakhel Street Festival Was a Smashing Success'

Lakhs of people turned up at the Kumaripati-Jawalakhel street festival organized from April 4 to 5 giving a boost to economic activities in Lalitpur, a district known the world over for its handicrafts and other specialties, the organizers told nepalverifiednews.com.

Santosh Khadka, chair of ward number-4 of Lalitpur Metropolitan City, the co-organizer of the festival, said handicrafts made by women’s groups from different wards of Lalitpur, stalls offering indigenous and continental cuisines, concerts, cultural glimpses of different indigenous communities, the traditional Lakhe dance and traditional musical instruments were some of the attractions at the festival.

A start and a rocky pause 
Birendra Lal Shrestha, the coordinator of a 10-member festival working committee and acting president of the Kumari Jawalakhel Deveopment Organization, the main organizer of the festival, said: We organized the first edition of the street festival in 2071 BS (2014 AD). A year later, in the midst of the festival, the Gorkha earthquake (April 12, 2015) occurred. After that, the festival was discontinued on account of several factors like the Covid-19 pandemic.

Objectives and challenges

Shedding light on the objectives of the festival, Shrestha said: Kumaripati in Lalitpur is a business district not only for Lalitpur but for Kathmandu also. It has banks, colleges, malls and stores selling internationally renowned brands.

But I had a feeling that the mood was somber, as if the city were only half awake….. and felt the need to awaken it.

So, with the aim of lifting the city’s sagging spirits and giving the economy a boost, our organization decided to organize the street festival.
There were several challenges in our way. The March 28 riots had just taken place and we were worried over security challenges.

A smashing success

But all sides cooperated with us in this endeavor. Lalitpur Metropolitan City supported us in a big way, so did businesses and we also chipped in, according to Shrestha.

"And people turned up in huge numbers, making the event a smashing success. At any given time during the festival, there would be around one lakh people on the ground while the comings and the goings would continue throughout."

Yesterday (April 5) in particular, there was such a huge turnout… It’s impossible to estimate the number of visitors.        

Roughly, though, in the course of the two days, more than six lakh people turned up at the event.

With divine blessings, no untoward incident happened during the festival despite a huge turnout, Shrestha said.

Major attractions

The one-kilometer-long stretch featuring different stalls was replete with attractions ranging from around 30 food stalls offering a range of cuisines and handmade products. The festival offered glimpses of all 29 wards of Lalitpur metropolis, ranging from food products to handmade products.

Lalitpur is one of the World Craft Cities. Stalls displaying the craft of making idols live, kids’ zones, cycle and bicycle stunts and concerts were among the major attractions, Shrestha said. "You see, youths want platforms to showcase their talents. These young and budding talents are pretty excited and they want to perform in the coming days as well."  

Then there were stalls offering a variety of delicacies.   
Each of the 29 wards of Lalitpur metropolis had their stall at the festival that displayed their major attractions like handicraft items and cuisines.  

Transactions

The organizers, along with Bagmati provincial government, LMC, ward offices of Lalitpur and business houses, put in around Rs 80 lakh rupees, according to Shrestha. "As for business transactions, my estimate is that the two days saw a business transaction of around Rs 50 million, including 30 food stalls that probably made a transaction of Rs 15 million."
  
The plan ahead

The visitors were saying to us: You should have organized this festival for three days. They were so happy. All sides, including the metropolis, business communities and the people, have encouraged us to organize the street festival next year also.

We are excited with the outcome and plan to organize the festival next year also.