The Nepal Festival 2008 Sydney was jointly organised by the Non resident Nepali Association, the Nepal Embassy and the Nepali community organisations from all over Australia at the heart of Darling Harbour Tumbalong Park on the 13th September 2008.
The success of the first Nepal Festival 2006 inspired us to organise the 2nd Nepal Festival 2008 in Sydney and the 1st in Melbourne. About 20,000 people taking advantage of a balmy sunny spring day enjoyed the festival.
The festival theme was “celebrating unity and harmony in Diversity”. Embracing this theme the artists performed a variety of ethnic cultural shows. This was followed by spectacular display of colourful regional traditional costumes signifying the ethnic diversity of Nepal. The cultural programme performed by the local artists continued till the early evening.The sensational performance of AXE Band from Nepal was undoubtedly one crowd puller during the event.
Another feature of the festival was the mouth watering regional Nepali food prepared by various food stalls .In addition to the food, there were stalls displaying Nepali handicrafts, souvenirs, Nepali tea and so forth. The volunteers manning the Non Resident Nepali Association and the Nepal Embassy booth were busy distributing tourist information to the Australians.
The representatives from the various educational institutions, agencies and charity organisation were also present to distribute their information to the spectators.
Prior to the official opening of the festival, the SBS Nepali radio programme conducted several exciting activities aimed to encourage children to participate in the festival.
Both the Nepali and the Australian national anthems were played to mark the opening of the festival. The chief guest Gaby Hollows, founding member of the Nepal Eye Programme Australia established in 1988 to prevent blindness in Nepal and now the founding director of the Fred Hollows Foundations, inaugurated the festival. Ms Hollows in her opening speech said ‘that this kind of event will definitely help Nepal and Nepalis presence known to the Australians ‘
Shanker Bairagi, Charge’de’ Affaires stated that such an event enables the community to increase Nepal’s profile in Australia and highlights the multicultural values’.
Devman Hirachan, Vice President of Non Resident Nepali, International Coordination Committee pledged commitment to the development of Nepal. He further stressed that one should not expect results overnight. When we sow the seed it takes quite sometime to bear the fruit.
Christine Gee, Honorary Consul General, expressed her profound appreciation of the efforts the Nepalese community for making the festival a reality.
Lincoln Hall, climber, writer and friend of Nepal expressed his gratitude for being able to share his mountaineering experience with the spectators on the day.
The Regional Coordinator, NRN international coordination committee and the coordinator of the Festival highlighted the strength of togetherness of Nepalis living in Australia evident, in their contribution to the festivals
The president (NRN Australia), Goba Katuwal stressed the importance of promoting Nepali culture and tourism in Australia.
The National Coordinator (NRN Australia), Dhruba Raj Subedi thanked the community organisations, sponsors, volunteers, media partners and artists for their support for making the festival possible.
Deputy Coordinator of Nepal Festival Organizing Committee Sydney & Executive Committee Member (NRN Australia) Mahendra Oli gave the announcement speech. Director of Oli & Associates Bhabani P Oli expressed his short remarks on behalf of the sponsors.
The festival of such magnitude, we believe, helped to promote Nepalese culture, tourism, trade amongst the Nepalese Diaspora in Australia and the Australian community.
NRN Australia - Nepal Festival 2008 - Melbourne & Sydney
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