The World Culture Festival 2016: A Celebration of Diversity and Uniqueness

The 3-day mega cultural event (March 11-13, 2016) celebrates Art of Living’s 35 years of service to humanity, spirituality and human values.

Spreading the message of ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ – One World Family, the World Culture Festival 2016 is a celebration of The Art of Living’s 35 years of service to humanity, spirituality and human values to over 370 million people across 155 countries. The festival emphasizes co-existence and celebrates diversity by bringing together the power of 3.5 million people on a common platform.

cultureGurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Founder, The Art of Living, said, “With the World Culture Festival, we hope to foster deeper understanding between people of different faiths, nationalities and backgrounds. By showcasing rich cultural traditions of dance, music and art from around the world as well as Yoga, this festival will be a unique platform for spiritual and religious gurus, politicians, peacemakers and artists to spread the message of global peace and harmony in diversity.”

When asked about the idea behind the World cultural festival,

Sri Sri said, “Bringing people from all over the world together and celebrating as one world, one family. People from all over world anyway come to ashram – A group from China comes or I go to Europe and people from all over Europe come to German ashram. Then I go to Canada , America or South America. So we have been doing our celebration in pockets, People come at different times from different places. So I said why don’t we come all together at one place at one time and celebrate together! We did this 5 years ago in Berlin and before that 10 years ago in Bangalore. Once in few years it’s nice to bring everyone together under one roof and celebrate! There is a saying in Sanskrit- there is no Joy in small things. Whatever is grand, it brings more joy. So we will do something very beautiful and grand!”

He further said, “The purpose of the world cultural festival is firstly to give the world a message that we are one world, one family.

Second, that we all co-exist with our differences and celebrating diversity.

Third, it is an opportunity for religious leaders, politicians and business leaders to come together and renew their vision to work towards the welfare of the society.

Fourth is to care for the environment. To create a buzz in the world that we care for the birds, we care for the mountains, trees, plants, and environment. This is the message we need to pass on to the world.

The fifth message would be to encourage the traditional musicians, people from every country, who have been preserving the folk dances, folk music and traditional music – to give them world platform. This would really bring the values that are going in the background to the forefront.

The Sixth message – The good people are there in the world and they are alive and they active and they care for the planet and every individual.”

Art of living founded by Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar in 1981 is a global movement, rekindling human values in the pursuit of happiness and peace.

“Art of Living, work towards a Stress free and Violence free world and make life a celebration. Celebration is the only way to unite people,” Atul Aneja WCF / GLF International Coordinator, Art of Living Foundation, Australia was quoted as saying.

 

Highlights of the event:

  • Over 33,000 people will perform at the festival in 3 days.
  • In the Grand Musical Symphony 40 instruments will be played together.
  • The Global Leadership Forum, co-hosted by the World Forum of Ethics in Business and The Art of Living Foundation in New Delhi on the 12th and 13th March, 2016 will bring together senior leaders from business, government, politics, science, NGOs, faith-based organizations, sports, academia and media to reflect on the paradigms of leadership needed to manoeuvre the world of today.
  • World’s largest stage-WCF will witness the world’s largest stage set up over an area of 7 acres. This will be an attempt to enter the Guinness Book of World Records for the ‘Largest temporary stage’ in the world.
  • Size of the venue– The total area of the venue would cover 1000 acres.
  • Over 1000 people are working on stage and venue development.
  • More than 20,000 international guests are expected. Sizable contingents from South America, Mongolia, Russia, U.S., Europe, Japan, Malaysia, Australia, Pakistan among others.
  • Revival of tribal art forms-WCF will revive some of the tribal art forms from India from states such as Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Sikkim among others.
  • World’s largest Peace meditation– This will be the first time in the world that 3.5 million people will meditate for world peace led by humanitarian and spiritual leader Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar himself on all three days at one physical location. Millions will also participate virtually.
  • For Bharatnatyam 3 Padma awardees are training the participants.
  • 650 drummers will arrive from South Africa.
  • Pandit Birju Maharaj is choreographing the Kathak performance for the festival.

 

 

To know more about the event you can visit: www.worldculturefestival.com

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