New Zealanders of all ethnicity and culture were treated with glimpses of Nepali culture on the occasion of the Nepal Festival held in Auckland CBD on Saturday, March 27.
The festival has only very recently come out in open public spaces three years ago in 2018 after having been organised for more than a decade in the closed doors of community centres.
Explaining the rationale behind this move, the then president of New Zealand Nepal Society Dinesh Khadka had told the Indian Weekender, "In the last few years, we have seen a spike in the number of visitors to the event and not just the Nepalese community but the Kiwi, Maori, Chinese and extended Indian community which led us to think and plan for a bigger venue."
Three years since then, the Nepal festival has grown more beautiful and richer in its new avatar, bringing great participation from the wider ethnic communities, including the Kiwi-Indian communities.
The new president of NZ Nepal Society, Santosh Bhandari, had expressed satisfaction and his gratitude towards the number of people turning up to the event despite current levels of Covid-scare and anxieties.
"Due to the uncertainty posed by Covid-19, we thought there wouldn't be many people here, but we are happy with people's participation," Bhandari told RNZ.
The event exhibited the rich culture of Nepal that includes music, dance, ethnic dresses and food, drawing not only people from the Nepalese and the South Asian communities but also wider New Zealand.
A cultural parade was organised from Aotea Square to Customs Street and back, with artists and performers leading the parade full of proud Nepali people wearing traditional Nepalese dresses, playing the drums and other popular Nepalese folk music instruments.
Among dignitaries attending the event, the key was Minister for Ethnic Communities Priyanca Radhakrishnan, Minister of Transport Michael Wood, Labour MPs Vanushi Walters, National MP Melissa Lee and Simeon Brown and Hon Consul of India Bhav Dhillon.
The festival was supported by a number of Indian community organisations and the wider Indian diaspora, who were present in numbers to support the event.