Holi has Indian families stockpiling colours ahead of second Brisbane festival
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A rainbow fog will once again descend on Brisbane when the city's Indian community celebrates its second annual Holi Festival of Colours.
Holi, a celebration of Hindu legends in which good triumphs over evil, sees crowds dump thousands of packets of coloured powder on one another.
It marks the end of a six-month planning, promoting and stockpiling process for the Indian-Australian families who bring it to Brisbane.
Jagdeep Singh, president of the Indian Cultural and Sports Club, said a wave of Indian migration to the city in 2008 created the foundations for the large-scale celebration.
"It took a while for people to settle down and settle in their work, and now they can spend some time giving back to their community," he said.
"I think it's very beneficial for our kids so they can proudly say what their cultures are."
Last year's debut festival attracted 1,500 people; around half of them were from outside Brisbane's Indian community.
Mr Singh said the act of bombarding friends and neighbours with colours was about washing away racial differences and any grudges made throughout the year.
"When you're colouring each other, there's no race, it's only colours that you can see.
"That's a big part of Holi — everyone is equal."
Gulal is the star of the festival
Ordering thousands of packets of gulal — a powder coloured with edible dyes — is perhaps the most important job leading up to the festival.
Revellers coated in vibrant blues, yellows, pinks and greens create incredible scenes difficult for Instagrammers and photographers to resist.
Mr Singh said the organisers went to great lengths to protect the mountains of gulal ordered before Holi.
He said he even went so far as to park his new car outside to make room in his garage for the colours.
"The other day when it was raining heavily my drainage blocked outside and water started coming into my garage," he said.
"My seven-year-old was helping me and we pulled all the boxes inside and saved them from getting wet.
"It could have been a huge loss for us but we saved everything."
The festival wouldn't be the same without its trademark psychedelic colours, but Queensland's Holi celebrations also focus on Indian food, music and Bollywood dancing.
Migrant traditions highlighted at Holi
Event manager Paviter Kumar Noori said the club's mission was to create harmony between Indian migrants and other cultural groups in Brisbane.
"It's about appreciating what migrant communities bring with them, a real colourful culture and traditions which can be shared."
Mr Noori said seeing the smiles on people's faces when the colours started flying was the best reward for the work volunteers put into the free event.
He said he expected 2,000 people to turn up to enjoy Brisbane's second Holi Festival of Colours.
"We hold on to so many things; grudges and jealousies within our hearts," he said.
"I think this is a time when we throw out everything and fill our hearts with love."
The celebration will be held at Rocks Riverside Park, Seventeen Mile Rocks, on Saturday from noon.
Topics: community-and-multicultural-festivals, multiculturalism, community-and-society, people, human-interest, brisbane-4000
Bravo SpiceJet. You brought colour into your passengers’ lives. A little masti, a little dhamaka..if we all follow… https://t.co/qeR48N25TQ — anand mahindra (@anandmahindra) 1519980962000
NEW DELHI: Passengers flying on the day of Holi were not deprived of festivities, as airlines ensured that flights remain special for them. While SpiceJet celebrated with music show at the Delhi airport, IndiGo celebrated it by putting colours with passengers. Vistara , an airline venture Tatas and Singapore Airlines, celebrated it by offering special Holi meal on flights.“There was a splash of red, green and yellow at Delhi’s T-1D as travellers tapped their feet to Bhangra beats and swayed to tub-thumping tunes from top artists DJ Bally Sagoo and Punjabi Singer Jazz Dhami,” SpiceJet said in a release.SpiceJet’s crew and employees danced to Bollywood number of ‘Balam Pichkari’.“SpiceJet’s employees along with the dance group Urban Singh put up a terrific dance show that had the audience floored as they joined the celebrations with equal zeal,” said the release.Interestingly, the dance item on a particular Bollywood song on the day of Holi was started by SpiceJet, when Sanjiv Kapoor - who has now moved to Vistara as chief commercial and strategy officer- was head of SpiceJet.It created a little controversy then, as the crew danced to the number, when the flight was cruising leading to the safety regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) raising concerns over it.Mahindra & Mahindra Chairman Anand Mahindra applauded SpiceJet’s initiative on Twitter and said: “Bravo SpiceJet. You brought colour into your passengers’ lives. A little masti, a little dhamaka..if we all follow that example, life will perpetually be colourful—everyday will be Holi,” he said on Twitter.
