pune the absence of city mp suresh kalmadi notwithstanding organisers of the pune festival the culture extravaganza started by kalmadi will go ahead with the festival the 23rd edition of the festival will be inaugurated at ganesh kala krida rangmanch on september 2 at the hands of eminent film producerdirector subhash ghai in the presence of minister of forests patangrao kadam and chief guest minister for cooperation harshawardhan patil dedicated to bharat ratna late pandit bhimsen joshi the tenday event will feature performances by wellknown artistes in the field of music dance culture and the arts actor rati agnihotri will do the festivals ganesh idol installation on september 1 at hotel saras at 10 am this year the pune festival awards will be conferred upon educationist s b mujumdar and wellknown orthopaedic surgeon k h sancheti during the inaugural ceremony the evening will be marked by a shehnai performance by tukaram daithankar and his team screening of a short film on the life of pandit bhimsen joshi by samiran valvekar followed by a ganesh vandana by actordancer sharvari jamenis vocalist upendra bhat will render marathi abhangs and actors sonali kulkarni neha pendse urmila kanitkar manasi naik and shruti marathe will present remix lavani melody special attractions at the festival this year include a bhajan sandhya by ghazal maestro jagjit singh classical recitals by vocalists sanjeev abhyankar and ashwini bhidedeshpande an allindia urdu mushaira featuring 16 poets and a hindi hasya kavi sammelan the festival will also feature marathi plays a marathi kavi sammelan lavali performances a mahila mahotsav hasyotsav ugavate taare for aspiring artistes from and outside pune gold and roll ball tournaments music and dance programmes like vasantotsav and saptarang and festivals on the culture of kolhapur and kerala the festival has been put together at a budget of rs 50 lakh almost half of the usual budget the festival committee garners from a horde of sponsors this year we have organised the festival at a budget around rs 50 lakh as against more than a crore that we are able to generate every year we are still making efforts to garner more funds due to a limited budget this year we couldnt go big on the festivals publicity aspects but we havent made any compromises on the offerings said krishnakant kudale the festivals chief coordinator at a press conference on thursday jointly organised by the pune festival committee department of tourism government of india and the maharashtra tourism development corporation the festival will be held at ganesh kala krida rangmanch balgandharva rangmandir yashwantrao chavan auditorium in kothrud lokmanya auditorium at kesariwada poona gold course at yerawada and mahesh vidyalay at kothrud security arrangements at the festival venues are tight said sabina sanghvi vicepresident of the pune festival committee like every year we are expecting a footfall over 2500 people at the festival also we are getting good enough participation from upcoming artistes in and outside maharashtra she added