varanasi a galaxy of classical folk and theatre artistes will grace the third edition of the national cultural festival to be organised by the central ministry of culture at banaras hindu university bhu from december 17according to coordinator of central coordination committee of the festival and dean of faculty of social sciences bhu manjeet chaturvedi minister of state for tourism and culture independent charge mahesh sharma will inaugurate the weeklong festivalthe festival comprises of a national theatre festival folk dance and music festival art exhibition rangoli making painting workshop classic music and performances shortterm acting course childrens film festival and workshop sanskriti exhibition puppetry contemporary art exhibition and one on mahatma gandhis life and messages outreach programmes and street playswhile bollywood actor sharman joshi will don the hat of a director for a play raju raja ram and manoj joshi for chanakya in national theatre festival padma awardees channulal mishra sonal mansingh pandit jasraj and n rajam and group would be a part of indian classical music noted actor thomas beach alter would join in as a subject expert for shortterm acting course to be held at department of mass communication in bhu while bhojpuri singer manoj tiwari and padma bhushan pt rajansajan mishra and pt hariprasad chaurasia will mark their presence along with sufi singer kailash kher and padmashri wadali brothers and malini awasthi at sanskriti mela to be held at assi ghat in collaboration with district administration these activities will be held at different venues across the sprawling varsity campus the first two editions of the cultural festival were held in october this year and in 2015 in delhi a total of seven cultural festivals is to be organized by the ministry to promote culture of the country