Dasara open street receives good response

The city’s Krishnaraja Boulevard, a historic street listed as a heritage monument, came alive with the third edition of ‘Open Street Festival’ on Saturday.

Thousands of people including tourists braved scorching sun to take part in the festival. Cultural troupes enthralled the visitors throughout the day. However, the visitors were inconvenienced for a couple of hours in the evening as there was a delay in switching on the lights.

Folk artistes from Bantwal in Dakshina Kannada district performed the Karavali special ‘Tiger dance’, Bharatanatyam and other forms of dance. The visitors were busy clicking selfies with puppets and artistes. They walked along the street, decked up with balloons and colourful lights, enjoyed shopping, played games, relished a variety of food items and beverages at the counters. The lights were lit up in the evening.Several activities related to eco-friendly initiatives were organised on the occasion. Awareness programmes about preventing the use of plastic were held.

Tourism Minister Sa Ra Mahesh, who inaugurated the festival, expressed surprise at the huge crowd in the morning and thanked the people for their support. Though the festival was officially inaugurated at 11 am, people thronged the street before 9.30 am.

In a bid to ensure the safety of the visitors, the authorities had established help desks, baby care centres and a control room on the street. The city police had stationed a mobile commando vehicle to monitor the crowd.

Similarly, the Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) had deployed civic workers and also vehicles to clean the street throughout the day.

Vehicular traffic went out of gear as the movement of vehicles was banned on Krishnaraja Boulevard. The authorities shifted the Open Street Festival venue from D Devaraj Urs Road to Krishnaraja Boulevard with an objective to attract a large number of tourists and as the street has a historic significance.

The first two editions of the Open Street Festival were held on Devaraj Urs Road, during Dasara in September to mark World Tourism Day and during Mysuru Winter Festival in December, in 2017.

Approximately one-kilometre Krishnaraja Boulevard is dotted with many historic buildings such as Oriental Library, Maharaja’s College, Yuvaraja’s College and Crawford Hall of the University of Mysore, Deputy Commissioner’s office, Court Complex, etc.