Preparations for the district-level youth festival and inter-state cultural exchange being jointly organised by the district administration, ZP, Department of Youth and Sports, Channagiri TP and Basavapatna Gram Panchayat and other Youth Associations will be held from May 20 to 22, for the first time at Channagiri in Basavapatna.

Huge stage
A huge stage is being laid at a school wherein 7,000 to 8,000 audience can watch the programme at a time. Nearly 15,000 people are expected to attend the fest from 30 Villages, said Dr Ramappa, the president of the youth festival welcome committee and also the president of the ZP education and health standing committee at a press meet here on Friday.
 600 participants for the district-level youth festival and  20 each from each state constituting 200 for the cultural exchange programme and 180 artiste from other districts will perform bangda, gumra, oddissi, tamacha, lavani, mari, karaga and other programmes.
The artiste will be provided with all the facilities, he added.
Dollu Kunitha from Sagar Women’s College, lambani folk dancers from  Rippanpet, tamate programme from Chitradurga Women’s Group, folk songs from Alur Nagappa, guitar by Anand and Nanarao, joguti pada from Mariammanahalli Manjappa, folk song by the famous folk artiste Pichalli Srinivas, cultural programmes from the artiste of other states as well as our state will be a major attraction,he said. 
ZP  vice president J M Nagaratna, CEO B Nijalingappa, assistant director of Youth Services and Sports department M Chandrashekhar, ZP members Kamala K G R Nayak, P C Govindaswamy, president of Channagiri ZP T Rajappa,  executive officer Anand, president of Basavapatna Gram Panchayat Ibrahim Saab, Maganahalli Manjunath and others were present.