It’s carnival time in city

3-day Visakha Utsav gets under way on a colourful note

Folk artistes from Vizianagaram district performing 'stilt' dance as part of the Visakha Utsav carnival on Beach Road in Visakhapatnam on Friday. —

It was carnival time at Beach Road on Friday. Visakha Utsav is not only an event for Vizagites but it appears to have appealed even to the tourists.

The entire thee-km stretch of the road from R.K. Beach to YMCA is decked up with stalls and amusement parks and the tourists were seen having a gala time on the day one of the three-day utsav.

Food stalls

There are about 50 food stalls selling cuisines from different parts of AP.

“I am a foodie and this is the best part of the utsav. I could taste at least five varieties of dosas,” said Shalini Banerjee a tourist from West Bengal.

Big hit

This apart, the assortment of replicas of all temples in AP, was also a big hit among tourists.

A visit to this section gives the satisfaction of visiting all the temples right from Simhachalam to Tirupati and Bhadrachalam, said a tourist from Brahmapur in Ganjam district of Odisha.

In the evening, both the locals and the tourists were toasted to high decibel music and songs belted by pop star Baba Sehgal.

Women on stilts

Women performers walking on stilts were a big draw in the carnival among school children, who watched the ‘tall women’ carrying steel pots on their heads. Folk artistes performing ‘Tappetagullu’, ‘Dhimsa’, ‘Jalari’ and tribal, street and tiger dances caught the attention of tourists. The cultural evening began at the main stage near R.K. Beach with disciples of Dwaram Tyagaraju, grandson of noted violinist Dwaram Venkata Swamy Naidu, presenting a devotional number on Lord Ganesh.