Lalon Festival begins in Kushtia today

Three-day Lalon festival remembering the legendary Baul Lalon Shah will begin on Tuesday evening after two years.

The Lalon Academy, in association with the Ministry of Cultural Affairs and the Kushtia district administration, is organising the event at Lalon Akhra in Chheuria village of Kumarkhali upazila.

Khulna divisional commissioner Md Ismail Hossain Khan will inaugurate the festival at 6.45pm.

Hundreds of admirers from home and abroad have already gathered at Lalon Akhra to take part in the festival.

The festival will feature open discussions, Baul songs by artistes of Lalon Academy and prominent singers, fair and cultural performances.

Traders who have put up stalls on the banks of the Mora Kali river for the rural fair, a part of the festival, are hoping for good sales as devotees have already thronged the Akra premises.

Security has been tightened to ensure the safety of the devotees as this year’s crowd is expected to be huge, said Mohammad Saidul Islam, Kushtia deputy district commissioner.

Considered an icon of religious tolerance and secularism in Bengali culture, Lalon Shah was a Baul, a mystic, a songwriter, singer, social reformer and secular thinker.

During his lifetime, his devotees used to organise the festival every year on Dol Purnima that continued after his demise.