Forerunners Nagaland to welcome Hornbill Festival with activities

DIMAPUR — As a prelude to the 25th Hornbill Festival 2024, the Forerunner Nagaland, a non-profit organisation, has decided organise an event on November 23 at Agri Expo site, Chümoukedima.

The event would showcase indigenous games and sports such as king chilly eating competition, pork fats eating competition, tug-of-war as well as a cultural extravaganza with live music and runway among others.

This was informed by the president of Forerunners Nagaland, Imlibenla Wati Nienu, during a press conference held at Tourist Lodge in Dimapur on Friday. She was accompanied by its secretary general, Sentimeren Pongen and co-coordinator, Moayanger Jamir.

The members informed that the event would held in collaboration with the Tourism department of Nagaland. The event would be organised under the patronage of Temjen Imna Along, minister for Tourism, MLA Kuzholuzo Nienu, and director of Ntangki National Park, Aochuba.

Activities in the morning session would include contest on indigenous games and sports, which would be followed by extravaganza activities in the evening session.

The morning session would begin at 10 am with tug-of-war (only for men), king chilly eating competition, pork fats eating competition and bamboo stick race.

Winners in the tug-of-war would receive cash award of INR 50,000 and INR 30,000 for the runner-up.

In the pork eating competition, contestants would be provided 1 kg of cooked pork, wherein the fastest would be declared winner. However, the organisers have requested only people with good health condition to participate in the event.

For the king chilly eating competition, the person who could eat the highest number of chilly in one minute would be the winner.

For the traditional bamboo stilt race, it would be a 100 metre race. It informed that the stick should be of 2 feet above the ground, which should be borne by the participants. The first two winners would receive cash prizes of INR 10,000 and INR 5000 respectively.

The evening session would be marked with live music, fashion show and other activities beginning at 6 pm.

The evening session would feature performances by local artistes, Bombay Vikings Neeraj Shridhar and DJ Kaos Kitten from Russia.

The tickets for the evening session could be booked online from mytvshow.in. The same could be availed on the spot at the cost of INR 500.