Sangai Festival venue : 60,000 footfalls recorded at Moirang Khunou on 6th day
Source: The Sangai Express

Moirang, November 27 2022: Around 60,000 people visited the ongoing Manipur Sangai Festival on the sixth day at Moirang Khunou, the main venue of the festival on Saturday.

As the festival draws closer to the end, the number of people visiting the Sangai Ethnic Heritage Park is also rising dramatically.

Today too, huge crowds coming from different directions were seen converging at the main venue.

However, many of the visitors were peeved at the absence of representatives of different ethnic groups in the evening at their respective huts built at the Sangai Ethnic Heritage Park.

As there was a huge rush yesterday evening, the machines installed for verification of tickets were unable to keep pace with the rush.

Later, the visitors were sent in after their tickets were tom in the middle.

As there was traffic jam on both Moirang Lamkhai side and Kwakta side, visitors to the festival as well as other commuters had a hard time reaching Moirang Khunou last night.

Many families who came to witness the festival at the main venue went back as they could not reach Moirang Khunou.

Some people expressed keen desire for the Government to expand the road leading to Sangai Ethnic Heritage Park before next year's Manipur Sangai Festival.

As the representatives of different ethnic groups were not present at their respective huts during night, many people who wanted to know about the artefacts, antiques and other cultural items displayed in the huts were left disappointed.

Some of the representatives did not come to their huts for days even though they were present on the opening day.

Some others came only after the fifth day.

Some others were present at their respective huts only when VVIPs and VIPs visited the Sangai Ethnic Heritage Park.

The representatives maintained that they were compelled to go back home as they were not provided any place of accommodation at the festival venue.

They also appealed to the authorities concerned to address such inconveniences in the next edition of Manipur Sangai Festival.

Meanwhile, Moirang AC MLA Thongam Shanti has reportedly made arrangements for accommodation of all the community representatives at the Ibudhou Thangjing Guest House.

Moirang.

Even as the Government made 300 stalls at the main venue, many of the stalls were left vacant or unoccupied as no one came forward to run these stalls.

Some of the stall owners said that their average daily sale was not very encouraging in the initial days but it has now picked up considerably.

They said that the majority of the visitors prefer handloom and handicraft items.

Children's amusement items like water park, break dance car and jumping castles are quite popular among a large number of children and their parents.

Some of the visitors said they faced several inconveniences when they visited Sangai Festival in the previous years at Imphal as the ground/venue was quite dusty.

But here at Moirang Khunou, there is little dust and the air is much cleaner, they said.

Different varieties of cultural and entertainment programmes are held at the main venue every day.

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