Sahapedia announces 2nd edition of heritage walk festival

Sahapedia and Unesco have announced the second edition of the India Heritage Walk Festival (IHWF), expanding their footprint to 37 cities, with a focus on heritage education and walks for people with special needs.

The IHWF will kick off with a heritage walk in Ahmedabad on February 2, focusing on the religious history and co-existence of multiple faiths in the Gujarat city, Sahapedia said in a statement on Thursday.

The inaugural day of the festival will also have parallel heritage walks in other cities such as Mumbai, Delhi, Varanasi, Guwahati, Pune, Udaipur, Kolkata, Puducherry and Chennai.

"We want to democratise access to local history and culture. One might be living in the same neighbourhood for years, but there is a big chance that an important landmark tucked away in a back alley has been missed and forgotten. IHWF is that opportunity to discover the hidden gems linked to the history of a place, town or city," Vaibhav Chauhan, Festival Director and Secretary, Sahapedia, said.

A primary objective of the festival, which will conclude on February 28 with simultaneous walks in multiple cities, is to widen access to various aspects of India's tangible and intangible heritage.

Through 87 heritage walks and over 100 outreach events, which have been planned across the country, the event will explore the cultural fabric of India, focusing on museums, historically significant monuments and markets, natural landscapes, areas known for rich cuisine, and locations that are rooted in women-oriented narratives.

Across 20 states and three union territories, the multiple outreach events, apart from the walks, will be in the form of photography and social media-based Instameets, informal and multi-disciplinary baithaks, a number of workshops to re-discover waning art practices, and walks for users with special needs.

For this edition, Sahapedia has collaborated with about 40 local-level partners to conduct its pan-India heritage walk festival. They include the Kerala History Museum, The Kochi Heritage Project, INTACH Srinagar Chapter, Art Deco Mumbai, Maharana of Mewar Charitable Foundation and Oxford Bookstore.

The itinerary for special walks includes Bhubaneswar's Mukteswara Temple, Mumbai's ancient Gilbert Hill and Kolkata's Nehru Children's Museum. The festival's first edition received the PATA Gold Award 2018 for its maiden pan-India event, Sahapedia said.

Registrations can be done online at www.indiaheritagewalkfestival.com.

--IANS

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