26th Pokhara Street Festival kicks off

POKHARA, Dec 28:The 26th edition of the Pokhara Street Festival began on Saturday at the Lakeside area on the shores of Fewa Lake, Pokhara's main tourist area, with the slogan 'Eat on the road, dance on the road, and have fun on the road'. The Restaurant and Bar Association Nepal (REBAN) Pokhara has organized a five-day celebration to celebrate the English New Year 2025.

The celebration, which will continue till January 1, was inaugurated by Minister for Communications and Information Technology Prithvi Subba Gurung. Before the inauguration of the festival, a procession with tableaux and dances of cultural groups from different castes, ethnic groups, organizations and institutions from different parts of the country, from Hallan Chowk in Lakeside, reached Komagane Park and turned into an inaugural session.

The celebration will be place on a four-kilometer route from Fishtail Gate in Lakeside to Jaharbar via Chautara in Gaira. Organizers and local businessmen decorated the festival venue as well as the shoreline of Fewa Lake. The route where the festival will take place has been decked with flags, banners, and welcoming gates. Along with the trees on the right and left sides of the road, business owners have installed colorful lights in their restaurants, hotels, and stores. As a result, the lakeside region appears even more appealing.

The festival has been held for the past 25 years with the goal of attracting local and foreign tourists and establishing Pokhara as a place for celebrating the English New Year, according to Bishwaraj Poudel, chairman and festival coordinator of REBAN.

Throughout the festival, hotels and restaurants in the vicinity will keep their kitchens on the road to serve guests. In addition to REBAN-affiliated restaurants, over 400 roadside booths will provide food and other services. Birendra Sherchan, coordinator of the Festival Publicity Sub-committee and general secretary of REBAN, announced that the festival area will host a variety of cultural and entertainment programs, discussion programs, documentary screenings of adventure sports in Pokhara and the surrounding areas, and other programs to promote tourist destinations.

The main attractions for tourists attending the festival will be cultural programs on the streets, cultural programs reflecting various ethnic and religious cultures and original costumes, displays of national and international cuisine, tableau performances, various sports, tourist attraction documentaries, home and handicraft items, live bands, panche baja, paintings, sculptures, Gandharva singing, and other entertainment programmes. According to the organizers, the festival will assist to conserve Nepali art, culture, lifestyle, and other objects in Pokhara and the surrounding areas while also promoting them to foreign tourists.