Navratri Festival to begin from tomorrow

Gandhinagar, Oct 11 (UNI) The famous Navratri festival (festival of nine nights), popular for Garba dances, will begin from tomorrow in Gujarat.

Across the state, thousands of Garba dance venues have been set up by locals and all big corporates are sponsoring the nine-day show by putting big advertisments there. Even several media organisations are also sponsoring the show to attract crowds.

The corporates are funding the prizes including cars, motorcycles and plasma television.

The state, which has been sponsoring the Navratri festival for the past five years, this year has asked the industries to hold the Navratri fete, organised by the Gujarat Industries Navratri Festival Society (GINES) at Gandhinagar.

The grand event will be held at the Gandhinagar helipad ground from tomorrow until October 20.

The inaugural function called 'Nav Shakti Gurjari' was this evening, comprising a dance ballet on the theme of nine forms of the goddess, a cultural dance performances by artistes from various states in India and a 'maha arti' and fireworks. More than 500 artistes, hailing from various parts of the country, will perform traditional folk dances.

Famous names like Soli and Nisha Kapadia, Shyamal Saumil and Aarti Munshi, Sachin Limaye, Sanjay Oza, Nayan Pancholi, Parthiv Gohil and Dipali Somaiya are expected to perform.

GINES has got the sponsorship from leading business houses like Reliance, Essar, Adani, Welspun, Torrent, Nirma, Sanghi, Sterling Biotec, NG Realty, ABG Shipyard, Ganesh Housing, Gujarat Anjan Cement and Reliance communications, among others.

UNI