SAMBALPUR: More than 5,500 folk artistes - each practicing dying art forms at different parts of the state and its neighbouring areas - will come together for the Sital Sasthi festival in Sambalpur Odisha, forever wedded to the idea of cultural upliftment through rituals, will witness a three-day-long festival that will take off on May 29 to mark the wedding of Shiva and Parvati.The festival rituals will begin on May 25. The divine marriage will take place on the night of May 29, followed by a veritable wedding procession which will start on the night of May 30 and end on the afternoon of May 31."The festival began in the 17th century and has been providing a platform to the dying art form of this region since inception," said the working president of the joint coordination committee of the Sital Sasthi Yatra, Amulya Mishra.Dance forms like Gourbari, Kalas, Paika Akhda, Pashu Nrutya, Baja Salia, Chaiti Ghoda, Samparda, Parva, Ghumra and Kandha, which are on the verge of extinction, are going to be performed during the carnival for a lakh-strong audience.A total budget of Rs 77 lakh has been drawn up by organising committees for the festival this year.For the Modipara chapter of the festival, 2,300 artistes and performers will take to the streets. Cultural callings which have disappeared from usual parlance just as the words that describe them, like Dulduli, Samparda, Jodisankha, Jhanj, Ghant, Bagha Sandha, Gaur Badi, and Kandha Nacha will undergo a revival of sorts as major attractions of the procession in Modipara. Around Rs 25 lakh will be spent on the Modipara festival this year.Similarly, 1,700 artists will perform in the procession of the Jharuapara Sital Sasthi this year. The organising committee will spend Rs 27 lakh on the festival.Apart from Modipara and Jharuapara, many other temples in the city have also been organising the festival for the last few years.

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