Bhubaneswar: The open parks in Odisha capital are wearing a festive look with these being developed into theme parks with art installations that evoke the world of stories for one of the most interesting events ‘BhuFeSto’, an International Storytelling Festival.
While the world of Panchatantra is set to come alive at Buddha Jayanti Park, Indira Gandhi Park is being developed on Grimm’s Fairy Tales and Kharavela Park in Khandagiri ready to cast a spell with Arabian Nights theme.
The installations will remain in these parks even after the festival.
‘BhuFeSto’, curated by Bakul Foundation, will be held from December 6 to 10 simultaneously at three locations across the city from 2.30 pm to 7.30 pm. It is being planned as a regular annual event and aims to create a brand for the city, thereby attract tourists, who would plan a visit to be a part of it.
The festival is being organized in parks to ensure that most people and particularly children will find it convenient to attend without much fear of long-distance travel.
The event boasts of some of the best storytellers in the world such as Paula Martin from Argentina, Wangari Grace from Kenya, Dr. Wajuppa Tossa from Thailand, Dongjoo Bang from Korea and Sabrina Anastasia from France.
There will be performances from the rich storytelling traditions of India such as the 13th century Urdu oral storytelling form of Dastangoi represented by its most famous practitioner Himanshu Bajpai, the folk Pandavani tradition from Chhattisgarh represented by its most eminent contemporary performer, Ritu Verma. The famous Manganiyar tribe of folk musicians from Rajasthan, who have given Hindi cinema many popular songs such as Nimbuda Nimbuda, will also be performing for the first time in a collaboration with Deepa Kiran where stories will be interwoven with songs.
The rich storytelling tradition of Ravana Chhaya (shadow puppetry) from Odisha will be presented by Gauranga Das and other storytellers in Odia include the cine star, Usasi Mishra, the doyen of theatre, Anant Mahapatra and popular storyteller, Prachi Tara Mishra.
The highlight of the festival is that it is an inclusive festival with special storytelling sessions in sign language for children with hearing disabilities by Nita Gopalakrishnan, the only such specialist in the country and a special storytelling for children with visual disabilities by Deepa Kiran.
There is an elaborate outreach programme in the city as well where about 10 schools are being mapped to each storytelling venue. Storytellers are going to schools to conduct sessions to introduce children to the beauty of the world of stories.
