With festivity on the air, the 4th Edition of Winter Tales begins amidst feelings of deja vu amongst the people of Shillong. Adopting the theme ‘Come clean, Go green,’ the winter tales narrates the story of Green Meghalaya.
Taking pride in being the green festival, this pre Christmas event witnesses the Santa Claus too dressed in Green, giving clearly the message of ‘Green Santa’ and the eco friendly magic and recycle theme that the festival withholds.
Minister in-charge of Tourism department, Paul Lyngdoh said that the theme of Winter Tales 2023 is to preserve the greenery as displayed by artisans and craftsmen in their respective stalls who have come from different parts of the state.
Speaking to media persons, Lyngdoh said that the theme of the festival is vocal with locals, meaning to emphasize on local indigenous partisanship, craftsmanship without depending on anything from outside Meghalaya.
“The message is that if Meghalaya is to sustain itself in tourism and for the future generations it has to remain green which is why right where we are you can see that even the stalls and little bits have all been identified with greenery” said Lyngdoh.
The minister informed that just a month back, the state was awarded with the very prestigious award from Outlook Magazine about Meghalaya being ‘Next Best Destination.
Lyngdoh said that the award is a huge achievement considering that all along tourism has not received this kind of focus and attention today, we have arrived.
“In fact we have got away from what the rest of the Northeast is practicing because in terms of footfalls, we have been able to attract more foreign tourists even compared to domestic ones, not to talk about local visitors,” he added.
With regard to the criticism on organising various festivals, Lyngdoh said “The important points to remember here is that as a tourism department, we have a budget of our own that has been approved by the State Assembly”.
“So we are organising events and festivals based on the budget allocated to us, now we have not borrowed anything from PWD or from Urban Affairs to support our event” said Lyngdoh.
He added that the department is promoting tourism based on budget allocation meant for the department based on EAPs funds available.
The three-day event beginning Thursday offers music, intellectual discussions, local cuisines and wine and handicraft items which was inaugurated by Tourism Minister Paul Lyngdoh.
The festival has exhibition cum sale, cum demonstration of the arts, indigenous crafts, indigenous food stalls, local wine stalls and many more.
The fourth edition of Winter Tales organised by the Department of Tourism, Government of Meghalaya was inaugurated on Thursday at the idyllic location of Ward’s Lake. Winter Tales strives for a ‘natural and organic’ approach to events and festivities in Meghalaya by using items such as bamboo and jute wherever possible and limiting non-biodegradable and non-recyclable waste.