The Indian embassy has been hosting the festival of India in Buenos Aires since 2008. Following its great success from the last three festivals(2008, 2009, 2010) this year the embassy held the festival on a larger scale. The festival was held from 3rd December to 13th December 2011. It featured Bharatanatyam, Odissi, and Kuchipudi dance forms performed by professional Argentine dancers. Also Bollywood dance was performed by Manisha Chauhan and her troupe, who teaches dance forms in Buenos Aires, Argentina. This was the most popular among the audience and stole the show wherever it was performed.
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Forty Indian companies participated in the Exhibition, organized by the Export Promotion Council for Handicrafts (EPCH). The Exhibition was held at the Borges Cultural Centre, the prestigious venue at the heart of the Buenos Aires city. The Borges Centre looked like Chandni Chowk with thousands of Argentines shopping, trying out the Indian ethnic dress and accessories bargaining with the Indian exporters! Eight artisans from India did live demonstration of handicrafts making in the Borges Centre with works such as textile and glass painting, wood, metal and stone crafts.
In collaboration with the City Government of Buenos Aires, an open-air performance of Indian classical dances was held at the historic ´Avenida de Mayo´ (Avenue of May). The traffic at the Avenue was closed and an audience of several thousand attended the event.
The famous Argentine Yoga pop music group ¨Yoga Rave¨ gave a concert. One can see below the Argentines swaying to the music of Yoga Rave.
A Yoga Session was organized with a large group of five hundred at the Planetorium Park at 11 a.m. This was done in collaboration with the various Argentine Yoga Schools and the city government.
Indian films with Spanish sub-titles was shown everyday during the Festival period in one of the auditoriums of the Borges Centre. Food Festival was also organized at the Hotel Sheraton, Buenos Aires. The Ministry of Tourism of India sent two Chefs. Seminars were held on on Indian culture, literature, Ayurveda and Spiritualism.
