Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren has confirmed his participation in the second national tribal dance festival to be held at Raipur in Chhattisgarh from October 28 to 30.

The confirmation came after an invitation came from Soren’s Chhattisgarh counterpart Bhupesh Baghel through a letter carried by Chhattisgarh parliamentary secretary and Congress MLA Vinod Chandrakar on Wednesday.

The Chhattisgarh MLA handed over the letter to Soren at his residential office in Kanke, Ranchi, and apprised him of the primitive civilisations of the country and the world and the effort undertaken by the Chhattisgarh government in preserving and developing their culture and traditions by promoting tribal culture, folk dance, and folk music and folk arts through the “National Tribal Dance Festival 2021”.

Significantly, ICCR (Indian Council for Cultural Relationships) will be hosting the second festival to be organised by the Chhattisgarh government. The first edition was held in 2019. However, there was no festival last year because of Covid.

“The chief minister thanked Chhattisgarh MLA Vinod Chandrakar and extended his best wishes to the government of Chhattisgarh for the successful organisation of the festival and expressed eagerness to attend it,” said an official in the chief minister’s secretariat.

Earlier, the Chhattisgarh MLA had also published details about the cultural programs to be presented by the artists in the form of tribal folk songs, music and dance from different states and Union territories and also from other countries.

In the 2019 festival, also held at Raipur, around 1,800 artists from 25 states and three Union territories of the country and six other countries (Sri Lanka, Thailand, Maldives, Bangladesh, Uganda and Belarus) presented varied folk dance forms of their respective regions. For dances, there will be two categories, dances held during wedding ceremonies and dances held during other traditional ceremonies.

Entries from states and Union territories will be closed on October 20.

The top performers will be judged by a panel and there will be cash prizes for first, second and third position holders and consolation prizes. The winners, runners and third position holders will be given Rs 5 lakh, Rs 3 lakh and Rs 2 lakh, respectively.

In marriage and sanskar category, Chhattisgarh won the first position while Jharkhand secured second position in 2019.

“All participants will have to be in traditional costumes with live music performance. Pre-recorded music will not be allowed during performances. Respective states can send brief write-ups on their traditional dance form along with artists names and photographs on the email crgtribalfestival@gmail.com before October 20,” said a close aide to Soren.