Mumbai International Festival to be held between Jan 20 and 28

The Mumbai International Festival will be held from January 20 to 28 next year. It will be an annual event starting in 2024, aimed at promoting tourism and establishing the city as an international tourist destination. The festival will feature cultural events, music festivals, food festivals, and more. The Mumbai International Festival Foundation, chaired by Anand Mahindra, will plan and organize the festival. Other members of the foundation include Sachin Tendulkar and various government officials and business leaders. The festival aims to increase public participation and collaboration with local communities, artists, and NGOs. The state has allocated ₹25 crore for marketing the festival.

Mumbai: The nine-day Mumbai International Festival will be held between January 20 and 28 next year, the state government has decided after months of planning.

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It will be held every year from 2024 onwards along the lines of the Dubai International Festival. It has also been decided to form a foundation that will plan the festival, decide its scope, destination, formulate guidelines and take all policy decisions among other things.

The Mumbai International Festival Foundation would be chaired by Anand Mahindra, business tycoon and chairperson of Mahindra and Mahindra Group and will have icons such as Sachin Tendulkar as its members.

The decision was taken in the state cabinet meeting held on Wednesday. HT was first to report about the government’s plan on June 26.

It would be the biggest festival ever with a vast cultural line-up, music fest, fun, food and fiesta in store for revellers. The festival has been planned to promote tourism and establish the city as an international tourist destination.

To make it unprecedented, the Directorate of Tourism (DoT) is working to organise all popular festivals such as Kala Ghoda, Bandra Fair, Banganga, Worli Mahotsav and Mumbai Marathon during the same period. The foundation will also help to make it possible.

The body will also have BMC commissioner, police commissioner, principal secretary tourism, Harsh Jain, CEO & co-founder of Dream11 & Dream Sports, Amitabh Chaudhry, managing director and chief executive officer, Axis Bank, Ronnie Screwwala, film producer, Neerja Birla, chairperson of Aditya Birla Education Trust (ABET), tourism director and others as directors.

The government has also appointed actor Sachin Pilgaonkar, filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar and heads of hotel association, mall association, Credai and Indian association of tours operators as special invitees.

“The foundation will make efforts to improve public participation in the festival, prepare a theme to promote tourism and trade, to get sponsorship from government, non-government and private organisations, ensure participation of local community, artists, NGOs, local authorities in the organisation, stated a senior government official from the tourism department.

The state has made a provision of ₹25 crore for marketing of the festival.

The foundation will further hold agreements with education institutions and cultural organisations to increase participation of locals. It plans to organise workshops, and seminars and make efforts to organise all the other festivals of the city during the same period, to introspect lacunas if any and improve next year and submit its report to the government on regular basis, said the official.

As part of the festival, Mumbaiites along with domestic and international tourists will be able to indulge in a number of activities, including beach and adventure activities, harbour tourism, shopping and food festivals, according to officials involved in planning the fest.

The state tourism department is looking to make Maharashtra a compelling tourist destination with a focus on Mumbai, which will display the diversity and unique culture of the state through various means during the festival.