Mangalore: Three-day Beach Festival concludes at Panambur Beach

Pics by Dayananda Kukkaje
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangalore

Mangalore, Feb 9: The two-km Panambur beach was bustling with activity on the final day of the three-day Beach Festival on Saturday. Thousands of people participated in the festival.

Many took a ride in the high-speed mechanised boat, a few others preferred camel rides. Many families spent time on the beach playing in water against the backdrop of the setting sun while others took a close look at the myriad and colourful kites that dotted the skies.

Along the road leading to the beach, traditional stalls in which utensils and other household articles were being sold attracted a large number of women. The road was crowded. People had to park their vehicles more than a kilometre away from the beach. More youths and children were seen buying and blowing air horns. Children were seen dragging their parents to stalls selling kites, candies and eatables.

Team Mangalore’s Pradeep, who was flying a serial kite, attracted the crowd. He said, initially he had 83 kites in the series but very few were left by late evening. “The thread got cut some time back and a few kites flew away”, he said. Even as he was talking to this reporter, his serial kite got entangled with another and he feared that some more of his kites will go away. But he skilfully managed to disentangle it. A kite in the shape of an owl with its eyes blinking and another depicting the face of a Yakshagana character drew the attention of the crowd.

The sand sculpture depicting a huge palm pushing down the face of a terrorist bagged the first prize.

A participant was still busy making an image of global warming even after the sunset. A musical evening by playback singers brought the curtains down on the Beach Festival.

Mangalore: Singer Kunal Ganjawala Has Audience Asking For More 

Mangalore, Feb 9: Melodious songs by renowned singer Kunal Ganjawala  proved to be the perfect ending to the beach  festival at Panambur on Sunday February 8.   

The Bollywood singer, who has also sung for Kannada Movies, enthralled the audience with hit numbers like ‘Onde ondu  saari’ and ‘Neene neene manasella neene’. 

District-in-charge minister Krishna Palemar presided over the valedictory function.

“The coastal city is known for its culture. The sea is a specialty here and celebrating the festival here can be termed the ‘festival of the sea’”, said Palemar.

Zilla panchayat president K P Sucharitha Shetty who was the chief guest said that the beach festival is similar to other traditional festivals of the region.

Mayor  Ganesh Hosabettu, district headquarters assistant officer Prabhakar  Sharma,  district  Sahitya  Parishat president  Pradeep  Kumar  Kalkura, organizing  officers  Suresh  Kumar,   Mohan  Kudri,  Narasimha Moorthy, and  Yathish  Baikampady,  were  present.

The beach festival had been organized as part of the ‘Karavali Utsava’ by the district administration.

• Mangalore: Delicious Sea Food, Jolly Camel Ride - All Available at Beach Festival