Bhubaneswar, Aug. 31: Veterans as well as promising young artistes from across the country will perform in this year’s Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra Award Festival in the city on September 5. One of the most-awaited cultural events of the state, the grand festival will begin next week on September 5.

For the last 19 years, the Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra Award has been presented annually to veterans in the field of dance, music, theatre and cinema.

Hosted by the legendary Odissi exponent Kelucharan Mohapatra’s dance institute Srjan, the festival will celebrate its 20th edition this year.

The festival is known for bringing some of the most celebrated names in the field of music and dance to the city.

The five-day festival will feature prominent artistes this year, too.

Odissi dancer Ramli Ibrahim from Malaysia will open the festival. A disciple of the revered Guru Debaprasad Das, Ramli is known for his unusual approach towards Odissi compositions.

Along with him, the inaugural day will also see flute maestro Shashank Subramaniam. The flautist of the Carnatic genre has performed alongside eminent artistes such as tabla exponent Zakir Hussain. In his late 30s, the Grammy nominee already has over 25 years of stage experience.

Another young artiste to regale city-based art lovers at the festival is Bharatnatyam dancer Vaibhav Arekar of Mumbai. His presentation of the Indian dance form in contemporary form has earned him popularity across the globe.

Famous percussionist Anandan Sivamani, also from Mumbai, will be the highlight of the festival this year.

Other major artistes to feature in the festival this year are Kathak dancer Prashant Shah, sitarist Neeladri Kumar and as is the ritual every year, the concluding day will see artistes of Srjan perform a new production by Odissi guru Ratikant Mohapatra, son of Kelucharan Mohapatra and organiser of the festival.

“We hope this year, too, our festival generates as much excitement as previous years. We have chosen artistes, who are adept at keeping the audience spellbound. The awardees will be announced on September 3. Srjan will perform on the award night which would also be the concluding evening,” said Ratikant.

Among Srjan’s new productions to be showcased at the festival are Shradha and Kubjaa.

“We have tried to compose an abstract fusion in Shradha that will use conceptual artistic language on stage. Kubjaa is based on a mythological tale of devotion and dedication,” said an artiste of Srjan.

The Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra Award for 2014 by Srjan dance institute will be given to Guru Sudhakar Sahoo for dance, Niranjan Satapathy for theatre, Pandit Umesh Chandra Kar for music and Prasant Nanda for contribution to Odia cinema.

Chief minister Naveen Patnaik will hand over the award to the recipients on September 9 at Rabindra Mandap.