From being a spotlight country, India gets a Zone at the prestigious Houston International Festival (I-fest).
Organizers of the I-fest – Houston Festival Foundation, Inc. – have decided to allocate an exclusive India Zone at the annual event.
The decision, follows the grand success of the I-fest held early this year where India was a spotlight country.
Organizers attribute the visit of more than 200,000 people – a record number – to the exotic appeal of India, its rich cultural heritage and food.
The I-fest was held in two phases spread over two weekends April 23-24 and April 30-May 1.
It is because of this large crowd thronging the I-fest venue in Houston down town that for the first time in few years the Houston Festival Foundation Inc. made a profit.
Eager to attract the similraly large crowd in coming years, the organizers then approached the Indian Consulate with their decision to have "exclusive" India Zone at the I-fest every year.
"This is a prestigious thing. We accepted the proposal. So India would be now showcased at Houston International Festival every year," the Consul General of India at Houston, S. Tayal, told HindustanTimes.com before leaving on his new assignment as ambassador of Uzbekistan last week.
{{/usCountry}}"This is a prestigious thing. We accepted the proposal. So India would be now showcased at Houston International Festival every year," the Consul General of India at Houston, S. Tayal, told HindustanTimes.com before leaving on his new assignment as ambassador of Uzbekistan last week.
{{/usCountry}}Tayal said this was one of the rare privilage for India, as this is for the first time that any country has been offered the opportunity to have its permanent zone at the I-fest.
Normally, a nation is selected as a spotlight country every year and zones are exclusively reserved for various regions of the world.
As of now, there are only three zones at the I-fest: Africa Zone, Carribean Zone and Latin American Zone and from next year onward India would become the fourth zone.
Tayal said, there was a massive community participation in making the "India Spotlight" at the I-fest a success.
The festival had an Icredible India Zone which was designed like an Indian village with two stage for live music.
The Taj Mahal created by Artist Sudarshan Patnaik from Orissa with 25 tonnes of sand was a huge draw with people lining up for taking pictures against its background.
The Centre Stage was Bollywood which include musical extravaganza of costumes, music, dance and bhangra on both weekend of the festival.
This was for the first time in the 34 years history of the festival that India was selected as a spotlight country, according to Jim Austin president of the festival because of India's emergence as an emerging major global economic player and also due to the increasing interest of the people of Houston for India.
Japan (1991), China (1997) and Thailand (2004) are the only three other Asian countries so far to get this privilege. But India, now can claim to have an edge over the rest as it would be the only country to have its own permanent zone at the prestigious event.