MYSURU: The events leading to New Year celebrations, coinciding with the conclusion of the Mysuru Winter Festival, made it a ‘December to Remember’, which interestingly was the theme of the last year’s initiative.
The city braced up for a cold start to the New Year with the temperatures plunging to a new low of around 13 degrees Celsius on Sunday, December 31.
But that did not prevent revellers and tourists from soaking in the cultural programmes and the slew of events held during the last 10 days.
The Mysuru Palace Board introduced fireworks on an experimental basis to ring in the New Year in 2017 and after the response, the concept was expanded to ring in 2018 as well.
On Sunday, the flower show at the palace premises was kept open for the public till late in the night and the cultural programme included a concert by the Police Band featuring both English and Carnatic music.
The cake festival was another event that received a thumbs up from the public while the Mysuru Street Festival on Saturday had the city emptying into the Devaraja Urs Road.
The first ever open-air screening of movies at the Maharaja’s College Grounds for four days as part of the festival was another attraction which led to greater public participation.
What is significant is that the district administration and the tourism department joined hands to make both the winter festival and the New Year celebrations a mass event with cultural programmes for people to savour.
For a city vying to woo tourists, such initiatives from Christmas to New Year should be a permanent feature on the lines of Dasara, say stakeholders in the tourism sector.
