Preparations are now in full swing for next month's mega cultural event to be staged on Mahanadi riverbed near the historic Barbati fort here for the Odia New Year celebrations.
While the Odia New Year will be observed on 'Pana Sankrant Day' on April 12, the cultural events will happen on April 15 and 16 evenings, said the Nababarsha Mohtsav Committee Chairman Prasanna Kumar Nanda.
The Committee in association with Cuttack Habitat for Humanity Trust has been holding these mega cultural events for last four years and every year lakhs of revellers enjoy the carnival which is packed with entertainment programmes based on Odia culture.
Highlighting this year's preparations, Nanda informed that eminent flutist Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia, who is now based in USA, will be travelling to the State for the Odia New Year celebrations and will perform at the Mohtsav.
He further informed that sand sculptor Pramod Patnaik will set up a massive and record-breaking sand sculpture on the occasion for which officials of the Guinness Book of World Record will be travelling to the city to confirm the record.
"While the highest sand sculpture recorded in world has been 48 ft tall, Pramod would be breaking that record this year", Nanda informed saying that more than two lakh cubic feet of sand would be used for the sculpture depicting a historical monument of the State.
Besides, the carnival would witness musical versions of legendary Odia poems penned by Utkal Gaurav Madhusudan Das, dance performance by eunuchs, dibyangs and inmates of orphanages and students of schools run by different religious missionaries.
At a preparatory meeting held for it last week, leaders from different communities, heads of local committees and representatives of many cultural organisations pledged to make the celebrations successful.
