For the first time, amid the global coronavirus pandemic, Nagaland will bring its 21st edition of the Hornbill Festival to a virtual platform from December 1 to 5, on three national and regional audiovisual news channels.
Dubbed as the ‘Festival of Festivals’, the Hornbill Festival, which has put the state on the world tourist map, is an annual 10-day cultural and tourist extravaganza that elaborately showcases the rich and diverse Naga ethnicity through folk dancing, traditional music, local cuisine, handicrafts, art, craft workshops highlighting indigenous textiles and designs, among various other Naga experiences.
However, due to this year’s Covid-19 pandemic, the state government has announced that it will make the festival virtual. Tourism officials reported that the virtual event will showcase a series of cultural programs over the next five days with content from government archives.
According to the head of the Department of Tourism, Ajanuo Belho, the Nagaland Virtual Hornbill Festival 2020 will air on NDTV 24×7 on December 1 (10:30 AM) and December 5 (12:30 PM); Doordarshan Kendra on December 1 (5.30 pm) and December 4 (3.00 pm); and Northeast Live on December 1 (11.30am) and December 3 (3.30pm).
The main festival begins on December 1, which also marks Nagaland’s statehood day. In 2019, the Indian Air Force (IAF) also participated in the event by conducting a spectacular flyby over the festival site, the Naga Heritage Village Kisama, 10 km from the state capital, Kohima, with Sukhoi 30MKI fighter jets. , to commemorate the 57th year of the Nagaland state.
The Department of Tourism registered a total of 2.82,811 visitors to its 20th edition of the Hornbill Festival in 2019, which included 3,015 foreign tourists and 55,584 national tourists.
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