Folk Dance Festival

After we return to Vallabh Vidyanagar, the ladies in our group want to buy some Indian clothing. I have no specific plans, I will just walk around. But when the car enters the town, the road is suddenly blocked: there is a truck on which people are dancing, dressed in costumes. I get out of the car to do some more filming, this time legally without any restrictions, using the HD camera. I keep the audio recording running, the head cam, and also film with the regular camera. Three devices at once - have never done that before.

The truck is moving, and ahead of it is a long procession of music groups and dancers. As I learn, this is the West India Youth festival, in which universities compete in categories of dancing, singing, etc. This festival goes on for the whole week, in a tent on the large sporting area between our guest house accommodation and the H M Patel Institute. This procession here through the tree-lined alleys of Vallabh Vidyanagar shows someting quintessential of India: a cacophony of sounds, because all the bands play together, and they play different music pieces. Very nice colourful costumes, in stark contrast to some of the beak housing along the streets. Traffic that is uninhibited by the procession and adds to the sound carpet, with honking horns, motorcycle noise, and cars and buses driving by.