AMPATI: It was a spectacular end to Dimchrang Festival 2016 as four known bands of Garo Hills and Still Waters from Sikkim enthralled the over 8000 plus crowd here on Saturday evening.
The evening mood was set with four local bands–Titans, Ultimate Page, Quantum leap and Brighter than Bright making the crowd go gaga with cover, original and Christmas numbers.
The stage was on fire with the entry of Still Waters from Sikkim, which featured Abishek Gurung, finalist of a popular TV reality show. In sync with this year’s theme — “youth as change maker”, the vocalist was asked to interact with the youth during the concert.
Overwhelmed with the colourful bouquet of cultural extravaganza and musical overdose, Gurung urged the youth to pursue their passion for music.
Highlighting Still Waters’ motto of peace and harmony, Gurung said, “Music transcends cultural barriers and unites different societies”.
Chief Minister Mukul Sangma witnessed the performance and also felicitated the band members. Addressing the gathering in the midst of festivities, Sangma said, “Meghalaya was all prepared to take such events to new heights”.
He said that the government has recently established the centre for excellence in music at Shillong and Tura to give an opportunity to the youth to hone their skills in the field of music. The chief minister urged the public to encourage and motivate their children to take up music and arts. Impressed with the energetic show and the event, the chief minister announced that a much bigger festival would be held at Ampati to provide platform to the local talents and an opportunity to the people of Garo Hills to witness performances by artistes from other parts of the country.
He said that shows like Dimchrang can foster relationship with different cultures and communities.
