Dilli Haat in INA was crowded with people as the Culturista Carnival revived its audience with a colourful riot of folk, fashion, fusion, music, dance, mime and shopping on November 15-16.

The culture and arts hub was flooded with artefacts, handicrafts, apparels, accessories, décor, kitsch and vintage from India and neighbouring countries. What more could one ask for on a lazy November weekend.

Travelista India, a travel and cultural experience provider that organised the ‘Culturista Carnival’ dedicated it to woman entrepreneurs across the country, who are working with rural craftsmen and designing fusion products of classical, folk and modern form. These designers were from various designing colleges in the country.

Akshuna Bakshi, the founder of Travelista said the festival gives upcoming artistes a chance to come out in a ‘’bigger way’’ and associate with their government.

Eighty per cent of the participants were women. “I have always wanted to promote young women entrepreneurs. Indian women have a lot of potential which is often unexplored,’’ said Bakshi, adding, registrations for ‘She’, another cultural festival organised by Travelista, every year in March, also closed on November 16 during the
two-day event.

The festival was replete with cultural, musical shows in the evenings. On the opening day Delhi rocked to Woody Accouche Project’s blend of three unique musicians, Indian Classical flute (Kartikeya Vashist), African-Folk djembe (Nitin Virat) and Reggae Rhythms on guitars and vocals by Songwriter Calvin Wumbaya. This was followed by a performance by Indi-pop artiste Bhavya Raj’s song and dance with a loop pedal that was inspired by artistes like Michael Jackson and Justin Timberlake, but nothing had been pre-recorded.

The day ended with artiste Iti Tyagi from Srajan Rock Band humming and strumming some soulful melodies like Damadam mast kalandar, Ambarsariya and more during the festival.

After people had bought some Kashmiri shawls, Pakistani suits and Rajasthani dolls through the two-day event, they settled down to watch an experimental mime and theatre project called Project Motley, by Delhi-based independent artiste Juhi Jha who explores themes like gender, culture, love and justice through mime, use of clowns and
spoken prose.

The three short mime acts were inspired by the work of three diverse, inspiring writers who live in Delhi – Arundhati Roy, Vikram Seth and Nivedita Menon. People were entertained by Priyanka Valecha who presented an eclectic fusion of Egyptian belly dance, popping and Indian classical dance.

A hard day of shopping and fun activities was capped by the performance of Folk Sutra lead singer Soham Raha’s haunting melodies from Bengal inspired by one’s love for his/her land.