Our Correspondent
TURA:
Garo Hills is set to conduct a Winter Festival after the much hyped Me.gong festival, which was to take place from December 1 to 3, was cancelled by the state government.
The decision of the government to cancel the Me.gong festival had received wide-spread criticism, but now it has agreed to allow the Winter festival to take place at Jengjal.
Highly placed sources in the tourism department of the state revealed to The Meghalayan on December 1 that the government will host a three day winter fest in the second week of the month at Jengjal airport complex, 30 kms from Tura, where the original event of Me.gong was to take place with rock legends Michael Learns To Rock (MLTR) performing.
The tentative dates of 12 to 14 December are being mooted but final confirmation is yet to be made.
While the event management group behind hosting Me.gong fest is still hoping to rope in the Danish rock band MLTR for the festival, confirmation is still to be given that the musical band is touring the North East for the past two weeks.
Sadly, legendary rock band Smokie’s lead singer Chris Norman is being ruled out of the upcoming winter fest in view of prior commitments across the country and south east asia.
However, Garo Hills’ most famous rock band Riprap will be performing alongside new musical sensation from Bangladesh – Garo artist Antu Rechel who has a considerable fan following in the Garo Hills region.