Artistes perform folk music and dance of western Odisha on the concluding day of Rangabati festival at Rabindra Mandap in Bhubaneswar. Telegraph pictures

Bhubaneswar, May 31: The first edition of Rangabati festival, which reflected the vivid hues of western Odisha’s rich heritage of folk music and dance, concluded on Wednesday evening at Rabindra Mandap.

The event saw a jam-packed auditorium on the final day, just like the first two days.

While it was singer Jitendriya Haripal’s solo performance that had pulled a large audience on the day before, on Wednesday his duet partner of Rangabati song, Krishna Patel was the main attraction.

The 63-year-old Sambalpuri vocalist started off with a devotional song dedicated to Lord Jagannath and then a couple of folk songs, which spoke of the romance between Radha and Krishna.

Patel’s renditions created an ambience of spiritual feelings in the auditorium while the rasarkeli composition Bo chhata uda received a rave response. It was, however, the surprise performance of the legendary duet Rangabati kanakalata by Patel and Haripal that turned to be the most outstanding performance of the entire festival.

The viewers were on their feet once again while the singers too danced while performing on stage.

There were many other enthusiastic performances — dalkhai, karma, rasarkeli, nachania, bajanaia and many other folk dances.

Singer Pankaj Kumar Jal’s sensational renditions and the captivating dance items staged by artistes of cultural troupes Ukia and Sambalpur Kala Parishad from Sambalpur made the concluding day of the Rangabati festival a memorable affair.

The city audience loved the beats of the dhol. “The music was not only enchanting but stimulating. The beats of dhol, tasha, nishan and dulduli were full of energy. We had never witnessed anything like this before,” said Amiya Mohanty, an engineering student.

The event organised by the Odisha Sangeet Natak Akademi and Odisha tourism department will be an annual affair, said the officials.

“We had planned this event to give a platform to the artistes of western Odisha who are immensely talented but do not get frequent opportunities to perform in Bhubaneswar. Moreover, since there were not many festivals organised by the tourism department during this time of the year, we launched Rangabati and two other events as an experiment,” said tourism secretary Ashok Tripathy.

“After this overwhelming success, we are planning to make the event an annual affair,” he said.