The reduction in number of visitors is to be blamed on shift in dates, says stall owner.
Bengaluru: Namma Jatre, part of Bengaluru Habba, started in full swing on Dec. 10 but saw a big drop in footfall on the Dec. 11 event held at Ravindra Kalakshetra. The empty stalls around the fest reflected the drop in attendees on the second day of the fest.
Dr. J. Dundaraja, who ran the stall for Mysore Paintings, said that the shift in dates is to be blamed for fewer visitors. “Yesterday, there were a lot more visitors than today, because people are not free on Monday. The event was to be started on Saturday but was moved to Sunday later on,” he said.
Nevertheless, he was hopeful that the event would see more visitors by the evening. “We can hope that people who are working will come join the event later in evening, as the event goes on till 8 p.m.,” he said.
The Yakshagana artists also said said that they have seen more crowd when they performed there earlier. “It has reduced a lot, even as compared to yesterday,” one of the performers said.
However, the Dollu Kunitha artists disagreed with this.. Jayshankar, one of the performers in the team, said that the audience has only increased and will have even more footfall later on. “The day has just started, there will be more visitors,” he said.
Prabhu Roy, a professor from Department of Performing Arts, Bangalore University said that it will be disheartening for the performers to see few people. “The shift of dates definitely contributes, but so does the promotions done for the event. There has been very less promotion because of which people are unaware,” he said.
He added that more promotions would lead to more success. “The organisers could have done better advertising. The artists in the event have worked hard for this,” he said.
