Lalan Parishad USA organized the second International Lalan and Folk Festival at Marie Louise Academy in Jamaica, USA. About 200 artists and workers from Bangladesh, India, London, Canada and different states of America participated in this year’s festival.
On weekends, the event starts at 2 pm and lasts until 11 pm.
The presence of the new generation was noticeable in this Lalan festival held for the second time.
Legendary artist Neena Hamid inaugurated the festival by lighting the mangal lamp at noon. At that time, Rathindranath Roy, the vocal warrior of Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra, who received the Ekushey Medal, was beside him. Nurun Nabi, Dr. Siddiqur Rahman, Dr. Organizers including Masudul Hasan, Rashed Ahmed, Minhaj Ahmed, Comrade Zakir Hossain, Chief Adviser of the festival Nurul Amin Babu, Convener of Lalon Festival Abdul Hamid, Gopal Sanyal, Akbara Barua, Media Coordinator Pinaki Talukder.
In the opening speech, senior artist Nina Hamid said, “it is very good to see this aesthetic development of Bengali culture in the diaspora.” Expressing deep gratitude to the organizers, she also said that the new generation should be more involved with our Bengali culture.
At the festival, famous as Lalon Kanya Laila from Bangladesh, dancer Mandira Chakraborty, popular artists from New York Dinat Jahan Munni, Shah Mahbub, Alvin, Maisha Zerin and Sagnik Majumdar enthralled the audience. Dinar Moni joined the festival from Washington DC.
Aditi Roy’s special entry event “Who Am I” from London was thoroughly enjoyed by the audience. One of the highlights of the festival was the special performance of Mohitosh Talukdar Tapas and his troupe from Rhode Island. A group dance performance by Chandra Banerjee’s group from New Jersey took the festival to a higher level. Sadia Khandkar, Swadhin Majumder and Senjuti Talukder hosted this international program. The main sponsors of this year’s Lalan Utsav are New York’s renowned companies Golden Age Home Care, Wahiduzzaman Liton, Astoria Home Care.
Lalan was a humanitarian saint poet. He who removed from all kinds of ethnic differences including religion, caste, gotra and gave humanity the highest place. He composed his songs from this non-communal mindset. Lalan Shah is a man who has spread humanity through music.
The 2nd International Lalan and Folk Festival is being celebrated outside Dhaka and Kolkata in its biggest event. In the second International Lalan and Folk Festival Committee, Chief Adviser Anurul Amin Babu, Convener Md. Abdul Hamid, Coordinator Gopal Sanyal, Akbara Barua, Sukhen Joseph Gomez and Hasanuzzaman Saki, Art Direction Zaheed Sharif, Media Coordinator Pinaki Talukder, Program Assistant Shubo Roy and Sahana Bhattacharya. Utsavish Kishore Chakraborty works as the Bangladesh coordinator of the festival.
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