kolkata while london is still recovering from storm dennis and storm ciara bengalis ushered in the spring with fagun fest on saturday the idea was to bring the soul of bengal to the heart of londonorganized by bengal heritage foundation bhf in association with london sharad utsav lsu and british council the second fagun fest had bengalis from india and bangladesh settled in the uk gathering in large numbers at the bhavans london to celebrate the magnificence of poushfalgun the transition period between winter and spring no one heeded to the chilly london weather spring was in the air and so was baul bengali folk music pithey homemade bengali sweatmeats and kanthaembroidered handicrafts added to the festive spirit british council was there supporting its own living bridge projectit gives us immense pleasure to present the second edition of the fagun fest that brings the poushmela one of the most colourful festivals of bengal to the heart of london this festival gave an insight into the creativity artistic innovation and cultural celebration of both the bengals traditions including music handicrafts and a variety of cuisine british council and the government of west bengal are working together to showcase the range of communityled cultural innovations from india to the uk audience we hope that the coming together of the indian and bengali diaspora at the fagun fest will lead to a cultural collaboration of the arts crafts and cultural sectors of the two counties now and in the future said debanjan chakrabarti director east and northeast india british council fagun fest will now move to dublin and walesthe music was performed by eminent baul and bengali folk artists from bangla natok artists arpan thakur chakraborty kangal khyapa pranes som travelled all the way from kolkata to mesmerize the audience with their folk songs and streaming the indigenous instruments like dotara and ektara london is like a dreamland for me the event was beautifully organized by bhf members in spite of their busy schedule i feel overwhelmed to see how the effort by bengaliorigin londoners to preserve and promote bengali culture in a global platform i now look forward to the fagun fest performances in wales and dublin said baulsinger pranes somit was the day after bhasha dibos the bengali language day on february 21 supporting the artists from bengal were nonresidents bengalis like tanusree guha gouri choudhury amith dey and arunava bardhan it amazes me how bhf has now become a global family for me and i am happy to support their initiative towards promotion of bengali culture in a diversified platform thanks to bangla natok british council for supporting this cause more such initiatives should happen so that baul musicians handicraft artisans get more exposure opportunities and global recognition said baulperformer arpan thakur chakrabortythe key attraction was the various forms of pitheys including patishapta nokshi pithey gokul pithey dudh puli malpoa gurer sandesh baked rosogolla prepared by bhf members every year we celebrate pithey utsav but this year we have taken