Budapest’s Largest Indian-themed Festival Organized this Weekend

The Chariot Festival and the India Festival will be held in Budapest on Saturday, June 29, with a free, all-day program, writes Turizmus.com. The event consists of two main parts, the first is a music and dance parade through the city center, and the second is an Indian-themed outdoor festival in the City Park.

The Chariot Festival is the largest and most colorful Indian-themed celebration in Budapest, starting at 2 p.m. with the chariot pull from Vörösmarty Square via Andrássy Avenue to City Park. The festive procession will include musicians, dancers, drummers, and singers, according to the organizers’ statement.

The program continues in the City Park, next to the lake (City Park Boating Lake), with the India Festival, running from noon until 10 p.m.:

the festival will feature traditional Indian music and dance, stage shows, workshops, jam sessions, henna painting, fair of Indian products, yoga demonstrations and yoga philosophy lectures, as well as vegan delicacies, main courses, refreshments and desserts with Indian, Mediterranean and Hungarian flavors in the restaurant tent.

For families with young children, there will be face painting, a bouncy castle and children’s activities, followed by a concert from 7 p.m.

The tradition of the Ratha-yātrā Chariot Festival originates from the Indian city of Puri in the state of Odisha and is over 5,000 years old, making it the oldest festival on Earth. Some 15 million people join the festival every year. It was first organized outside India in 1967 in San Francisco. The event has since become well-known and part of the cultural diversity of cities around the world.

Via Turizmus.com; Featured image via Facebook/Magyarországi Krisna-tudatú Hívők Közössége – Iskcon Hungary