West Bengal Fair & Festivals 2018 : Banipur Lok Utsav

by Admin

on February 3, 2018

Update – Due to covie-19 Lok Utsav postponed in 2021 hope it will be in 2022

West Bengal one of the east Indian state enriched with cultural heritage. Along with heritage places, various type of fairs and festivals made culture of West Bengal colourful by which the state became a great place for tourism. West Bengal is home to several world heritage sites spread among twenty three districts and Sundarvans is one of them. World’s only Mangrove forest can be seen in Sundarvans. India is home to 36 world heritage sites and Sundarvans is one of them.

Every year there are lots of fairs and festivals are celebrated in West Bengal. Some of them are Shantiniketan’s Poush Mela in Birbhum, Gangasagar Mela near Ganga river, Makara Sankranti, Kolkata Book Fair, Bidhannagar Central Park Fair, Ratha Yatra, Vasanta Utsav, Jamai Sashthi, Joydev Kenduli Mela in Birbhum etc. And year 2018 also not an exception to celebrate these cultural programmes. There is also an yearly most popular programme is held which added an extra level to West Bengal culture is Banipur Lok Utsav. Tourists come here around all India.

Banipur Lok Utsav is popularly known as Banipur Mela which is held in first week of February each year just before the Valentine’s Day. Basically first sunday to second sunday. By popularity this cultural fair is a major competitor of other fairs held in West Bengal.

Banipur Lok Utsav 2018(বানীপুর লোক উৎসব ২০১৮)

Banipur Lok Utsav is a fifty year plus old fair held under Habra municipality in North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal. 2018 Banipur Lok Utsav steped foot at 64th year. This cultural fair have acquired several awards and honours by Information and Cultural Department, Govt of West Bengal. The 2018 Banipur Lok Utsav is going to be held from 4 February to 11 February 2018. The opening ceremony will start from first day 3 pm onwards.

There are six stages or manchas are built namely Mul Mancha, Dakshin Mancha, Jatra Mancha, Janata Hall, Swasthya Mancha and Mela ground where different scheduled programmes are presented daily. These programmes includes theatre(jatra), puppet dance(putul nach), chhou dance of Purulia district, raybenshe dance of Murshidabad district, dramas, volleyball match, dance programmes by local and invited artists, different type of health check up, football match, magic show, flower exhibition. All these programmes reflect the culture of West Bengal.

Apart from programmes there have variety of buy and sell shops are organised by the Banipur Lok Utsav committee. Everyone can buy furnitures, stationary goods, electronic goods, artistic goods from shops(mela stall). There have also selling stalls of fast foods, spicey foods in this fair. The main objective of Banipur Lok Utsav committee is to entertain people by organising various type of programmes. Each year there is a special attraction in Banipur Lok Utsav such as in 2013 there was a exhibition of 22 kg of katla fish.

This year each six stages are named for famous Bengali figure namely Mul Mancha is for Bhagabandas Ganguly and Tapan Sengupta Mancha. Dakshin Mancha is named for Utpal Chakravarti. Jatra Mancha is named for famous actor Dwijen Banerjee. Janata Hall is for Shyamal Pradhan and Alauddin Mondal. Swasthya prangan is named under Dr. Dilip Kanti Das.

Along with daily scheduled programmes, some famous artists such as Lopamudra Mitra, Raghab Chatterjee, Bhoomi band, Chandrabindu band also perform in this fair.

How to reach

Banipur Lok Utsav organising committee takes various steps for audience and various performers come from far. They arranges special utsav volunteers ambulance, local police personnel to keep the the Utsav environment safe and secure.

There are several routes are available to reach at Banipur Mela. Foreigners or visitors can reach here by rail and road transport. It is very near from Ashokenagar Railway station(5 mins). Visitors from Kolkata or out from North 24 pgs can reach via Habra Railway station. The distance of Banipur Lok Utsav is approx 38 kms from Dumdum International Airport.

Banipur Lok Utsav 2018 time table

The notable things in Banipur Lok Utsav is daily scheduled programmes performed in five stages. Here are the daily programmes from 4 to 11 February 2018 in Bengali