We have
already been to a Holi Festival with Paul earlier this year but unfortunately
we got there too late and the festival had already finished. That time it was
free and there was Indian dancing and Bollywood singers on the stage. It looked
like it was a great event so when I saw that there was another one I bought
tickets for us straight away.
The Holi
Festival originates from India. It is celebrated at the end of the winter season
on the day of the last full moon which usually happens late February/ early
March. Thousands of Hindus take part in this festival every year to celebrate
the beginning of a new season, spring and to enjoy its many colours. The
celebrations last two days and people throw scented powders and perfumes on
each other and light bonfires. During the festival the social barriers are lifted
and the young and old, men and women, rich and poor celebrate together.
This is what
the Holi Festival in India is about. The tradition however went worldwide
together with the emigrating Indians who took the Festival with them. Soon
other races realised that throwing coloured powder while listening to loud
music is actually great fun and the whole thing turned into entertainment. Nowadays
there’s a company that organises the Holi Festival in 25 countries in Europe
and I might be cynical but it seems that all the ‘tradition’ has been taken out
of it.
As we’ve
never been part of it before we still wanted to go and see it. You could buy
tickets to enter the scene, tickets with powder (5 little bags, apparently one
is free, how lucky we are!) and tickets with powder and a festival t-shirt. I
bought one of the first two options.
On the day
of the Festival we chose carefully what to wear. It is advised to wear white so
that the colours show up nicely on the clothes however you can be sure that
what you wear will be completely ruined. It was quite a sight to see so many
people wearing white in front of the venue.
We got in,
collected our powder bags and went to explore the area.
The
‘currency’ of the event were tokens that you could use at one of the stalls.
You could spend your tokens on drinks, food, more powder, face mask or a
festival T-shirt.
The sun was
shining all afternoon, it was about 29 degrees. There was a ‘Shower’ room where
you could cool down…
…or free
water hoses that could be used by anybody. This security guard took it upon
himself to spray down whoever comes close.
Most people
were congregating in front of the stage…
…but the
background party was around the hoses.
There were 5
DJs playing on the stage one after another in a 2 hour set. In every hour a
presenter came to the stage. He asked everybody to get their powder bags ready,
then after a countdown everybody threw the powder in the air. The sight was
incredible.
There were
long bars on the side and many options for food. My favourite was this giant
paellera full of chicken paella, this is what we had at the end of the day.
There was
Indian food on offer, too, probably the only Indian bit of the whole event but it
wasn’t a popular choice.
The powder
that people throw at each other is not dangerous but it’s still advisable to
cover your eyes and mouth. We didn’t have any protection and sometimes it was quite
hard to breath.
Overall it
was a great event, we had a lot of fun. We were covered in paint by the end and
were tired from all the dancing. Let me show you the rest of the photos from
the festival. Enjoy.
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