Nagaland: Virtual Hornbill Festival to begin on December 1

Nagaland, 1st December: Internationally acclaimed annual 10-day Hornbill Festival of Nagaland will be celebrated in a completely virtual mode from 1st December. The festival will be telecast through a TV channel. It will also be uploaded and available to viewers on all the social media platforms.

The festival is held in Naga Heritage Village at Kisama near Kohima every year. Greeting the people on the occasion chief minister Neiphiu Rio welcomed everyone to the Hornbill Festival, the festival of festivals which is being commemorated in a virtual model.

He said that “the Hornbill Festival is the flagship tourism event of Nagaland and has emerged as an internationally acclaimed global festival. Rio said the 10-day event beginning from December 1 every year is unique and like no other festival anywhere else.”

The festival is a celebration of the Naga tribal way of life an extravaganza of our rich cultural heritage that shows cases the energy and vibrancy of Naga youth,” he stated.

“This is one of Nagaland’s internationally acknowledged intellectual properties the festival has successfully propelled Nagaland’s emerging soft power on the global stage. Where every Naga is a proud stakeholder. Rio added the Hornbill Festival signifies unity and oneness in all aspects while exemplifying the vast potentials and aspirations of the Naga youth,” CM added.

Stating that the Covid 19 pandemic has created a new normal life “the state is accordingly rewriting the tourism script by aligning the industry to the changing dynamics,” Rio added.

However, owing to the Covid 19 pandemic this year the state government has announced it will make the festival virtual. Tourism offi6 informed that the virtual event will showcase a series of cultural programs during the next five days with the content sourced from government achieve.

The premier festival kicks off on December 1, which also marks the Nagaland statehood day. In 2019, the Indian Air Force (IAF) also participated in the event by conducting a spectacular fly-past over the festival site, the Naga Heritage Village Kisama, 10 km away from the state capital Kohima, with Sukhoi 30MKI fighter planes, to commemorate the 57th year of Nagaland state.