Puri, June 2: Shree Srikshetra Soochana, a voluntary outfit, is all set to organise the 16th Folk Fair 2018 and 9th Krishi Fair 2018 at an open-air theatre in Saradhabali here from June 3 to 7.
Youths from at least 20 states will perform tribal and folk dances during the Folk Fair 2018. Besides, forest products like honey and resin and handicraft goods made of bamboo, coir, jute and brass will be displayed, said outfit secretary Rajesh Mohanty.
Around 400 youths from 20 states including Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Sikkim, Assam, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Goa and Odisha will perform at the folk fair, Mohanty added.
To mark the 9th Krishi Fair, farmers will showcase several fruits and flowers. “The outfit will confer Srikhetra Samman on eminent people from various fields during the twin fairs,” Mohanty said.
Agriculturalist Trilochan Mahapatra, state planning board member Kamala Pujari, social activist D Prakash Rao and three newly-elected Rajya Sabha members—Achyuta Samanta, Soumyaranjan Pattnaik and Prasanta Kumar Nanda—will be felicitated during the exhibitions.
Dignitaries like Dhenkanal MP, and Dharitri and Orissa POST editor Tathagata Satpathy, Revenue Minister Maheswar Mohanty and Agriculture Minister Pradeep Maharathy will be the guests on various evenings during the five-day long twin fairs, Mohanty added.