Hare Krishna Temple in Kumeu had a big weekend as it hosted two major events in its calendar, Food Festival on Saturday, February 13 and Krishna Holi 2021 on Sunday, February 14.
The two events were able to draw more than 14,000 people to its premises during the weekend- one to enjoy the saatvik food prepared for the visitors and the other day to dance and celebrate the festival of colours, Holi.
The Krishna Food Festival saw over 4000 people visit the temple, go on a tour of the history of ISKCON temples worldwide, its missions, work and develop a stronger spiritual connection with the supreme power.
"It was a beautiful sunny day, we had thousands of people with their families and friends enjoying the quiet and peaceful environment of the temple, the open green areas of the temple and participated in chanting mantras and bhajan," Krishna Chandra, spokesperson and secretary of ISKCON Temple, Auckland told The Indian Weekender.
Mr Chandra further added that the food festival's purpose was to give the visitors an opportunity to eat saatvik (pure) vegetarian and vegan food, try Indian delicacies and snacks, understand what ISKCON temple and the mission stands for and know more about deity Lord Krishna.
"It was a quiet and calm day, people loved the exquisite location and peaceful ambience and had a great family fun day," Mr Chandra added.
On the other hand, the Holi festival on Sunday, February 14 was a high-octane event with loud music, dance, wet and dry colours for all age groups and ethnicities of people visiting the venue.
"The footfall was more than we had anticipated but prepared," Mr Chandra added.
More than 10,000 people wearing white clothing, from different ethnicities, dropped by at the festival of colours and the ground space in front of the massive stage and LED screen filled with colour as the visitors danced to Bollywood tunes.
More than a ton of dry colours were used and made available for the visitors along with vegetarian food, snacks, cleaning stations, coloured water cannon, and valentine's day merchandise.
ISKCON Temple was lucky that they were able to host the massive event just hours before PM Jacinda Ardern announced Auckland lockdown.
"We were lucky that we could host the event as just around evening when we were packing, we saw the news of new community cases and Auckland going into lockdown," Mr Chandra added.
"One of our vendors who travelled from the Rotorua-Taupo region to play music at our festival said he was thrilled by the crowd and energy they had at the event.
"He also said he was lucky enough to get away from Auckland after the event as lockdown started Sunday midnight, and weather of city too went windy and rainy soon after," Mr Chandra added.
The immensely successful event is now being discussed to be hosted outside Auckland closer to the Holi festival in March this year. The details will be revealed once it is officially announced.
ISSUE
Leave a Comment