it is the biggest cultural rendezvous of vidarbha where hundreds of artisans and folk artistes gather every year and regale the people of nagpur with their finesse and skills but this year the orange city craft mela organised by south central zone cultural centre sczcc on its premises will be bigger and better than all its previous editions we give you the lowdown on some of the exciting elements that will add to its magnificencejanuary blastthe dates of the fest have been fixed informs the director of sczcc dr piush kumar the craft mela will be organised from january 13 to january 22 since this is the silver jubilee year of the event the efforts are being made to ensure that it becomes the grandest ever celebration of rural art and crafts in the region we plan to get at least 250 craftsmen from different parts of the country to showcase their products including pottery handlooms paintings terracotta and handicrafts etc a lot of national awardwinning artisans will also be attending the mela and showing their art and craft live to the city connoisseurs adds dr kumarsaarc nations artistes to performburgeoning popularity of this event can be gauged from the fact that the number of artistes and artisans has steadily increased with each passing year in its silver jubilee year we are really proud of the fact that this mela will turn international in real sense of the word we have sent invites to saarc nations cultural authorities and we are sure that they will send their performing artistes to nagpur to showcase their skills this would be a first for this mela and will give it a much bigger aura and enhance its appeal shares sczcc directornew entertainment each dayanother highlight of the mela this year is that each day a new entertainment segment will be introduced in the 10day event shares dr kumar he adds along with the usual rajasthani gujarati punjabi and gondhal performances we are trying to get eminent folk performers like teejan bai wadali brothers manoj tiwari and nooran sisters of course we are yet to get a confirmation from them but our efforts are on right tracktheme sarees and chhattisgarhthere is another exciting new addition in mela this year informs dr piush kumar and adds from this year we have decided to have one particular theme to focus on its artistic intricacies and this years theme state is chhattisgarh and theme craft is saree our endeavour is to bring all kinds of indian sarees and rural and folk culture of chhattisgarh at one pavilion im sure people of nagpur would love this innovationfoodies paradisewhen you speak about a mela culinary delights have to be an integral part of this celebration hence a lot of thrust is being given to serve a vast array of food there will be at least 3040 food stalls where foodies will get to enjoy ethnic delights including littichokha wazwan cuisine dilli ki chaat tandoori delicacies saoji cuisine etc