INDIA ASSOCIATION of CHARLOTTE  -  Press Release 2-12-2021

Covid has drastically impacted our very way of life. And after the trauma of having to cancel our annual Festival of India 2020, we have started planning for our festival this year. In our frequent interaction with our key partners like BPAC, CRVA etc., about their view of customer sentiment, we all share a sense that visitor confidence continues to improve as vaccine penetration grows within our community. But no credible data to help predict how folks even after having received the Covid vaccines, would psychologically feel about attending crowded events in the Fall time frame. Our challenge is to predict visitor sentiment about events in closed indoor settings, as against experiences in a totally open outdoors setting.

We continue to work with Belk Theater as well as other open venues like County Parks, but they are also struggling with making firm commitments right now, for the September/October time frame.

Our intent is to drive a festival this year, even though the venue, duration and timing may need to be different from what we have done in the past.

Our priority in doing the event is to focus on the health and safety of our visitors, our performers, our volunteers and all other stakeholders.

We hope to make a decision as soon as our venue partners respond with some firm commitments, and will update this posting as things develop. This is a plea to please check back here frequently for the latest status on Festival of India 2021

Event - Virtual Festival of India 

We are honored to be part of the Welcoming Week celebrations in Charlotte. Here is a presentation curated to highlight key facets of our annual Festival of India, that we had to cancel this year for the first time in 25 years, because of pandemic related challenges.

The exhibit touches on some key community service initiatives by our festival team, like -  a) The Bus Stand Project b) Anuvia Collage Project c) Covid Mask Initiative d) Big Fat Indian Wedding.

And it also offers you a broad view of the activities within the festival itself, by displaying vignettes of various types of content like - a) Cultural Exhibits b) Indian Dance Performances b) Visual Arts c) Food/Souvenirs d) Turban/Saree & Henna Tattoos and more.

The exhibit content is in eight segments and here is a link to those. Please play each segment in the order listed  and enjoy!

Virtual Festival Of India