Nagpur, the Orange captial of the world witnessed the World Orange Festival take place for the first time. The initiative by Taplight was held at multiple venues spread over the entire city for a duration of three days, from December 16 to 18, 2017. The World Orange Festival witnessed a turnout of over 1,00,000 people from across the city, state and also attracted a lot of foreign visitors for all 3 days.
The festival provided a sensory overload to all visitors with not only orange treats and delights but also a host of cultural performances to delight the visitors. The festival had everything from cooking sessions, knowledge summits, musical performances, and more for the visitors.
The event brought a celebration of sorts with cultural performances, panel discussions, hot air balloon rides, trip to orange orchards, and exciting contests and giveaways for the visitors. There was also a Human lit statue, art installations across locations, Wishing Tree, live bands, special fireworks show at more than one location in the city, all created especially to delight the audiences. For the younger visitors, there were treats like kids arts workshop by Camlin, games by Nickelodeon with a toon cartoon Shiva, Hindi and Marathi theatre, and more.
Australian Master Chef Sarah Todd and celebrity chef Vicky Ratnani tickled the taste buds of delighted audience with orange based recipes. DJ Aqeel, a remarkable Sufi fusion by Roopmati Jolly and Luke Kenny ensured the evenings were filled with entertainment providing a complete package. The festival ended on a fulfilling musical performance by youth sensation of Bollywood – Benny Dayal. Audiences were also given the opportunity to have a LIVE interaction with artists as Anup Soni, Sonali Kulkarni, Smita Bansal coupled with cultural performances by International girl band and dancers followed by Marathi actress and dancer Sonali Kulkarni’s dance performance.
