Ellora-Ajanta Festival to be held in Jan 2023!

If all goes well, the district administration is gearing up to conduct the much-awaited Ellora-Ajanta Festival in January 2023. Earlier, the tourism minister had also instructed the tourism stakeholders to prepare and conduct the festival.

Meanwhile, the festival committee headed by the divisional commissioner will review the situation in the region and decide whether to conduct the cultural festival or not.

In the past 21 years, the festival was held for seven years only. During 2014 and 2018, the festival was held for one time. In 2017, the festival was not conducted due to the non-planning of the event. Presently, the Marathwada region has witnessed severe damage to standing crops due to excessive rainfall. Hence all eyes are stuck on what decision will the administration take over regarding the conduct of the cultural fest. As per the tentative schedule, the festival is likely to be held from January 15, 2023.

Once upon a time, the festival would use to be held on the campus of Ellora Caves, but since 2001 it is being held on the campus of the university at Sunheri Mahal. It was held regularly till 2007. Since then the festival was not held for one or the other reasons. Excluding the years 2010, 2012 and 2016, in the last 13 years, the festival was cancelled 10 times.

The district collector Astik Kumar Pandey said,” We had a primary level discussion with the agencies and tourism stakeholders involved in the organising of the Ellora-Ajanta Festival. The process of planning is expected to be completed by November 15. The festival committee under the guidance of the president and divisional commissioner will send the proposal to the state government. The tentative plan is to conduct the festival in January 2023.”

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Reasons for cancellation

2008 – Terror attacks on Mumbai

2009 – Spreading of Swine Flu

2011 – Teachers Constituency election

2013 – Spell of drought

2014 – Drought

2015 – Drought

2017 – Sans Planning

2018 – Drought

2019 – Sans Planning

2020 – Cancelled due to Covid-19

2021 – Cancelled due to Covid-19, Omicron variant

2022 – Decision is taken on holding the festival in 2023.