Golf, car rally, et al to mark Pune festival

The 18th edition of Pune Festival, which will be inaugurated on September 1, promises to be a confluence of religious, social and corporate events and will be held on the same day when the city observes its historic Ganesh festival.

Pune Festival organising committee vice-chairperson Sabina Sanghvi said the six-day extravaganza would have performance of Chinese acrobats, music concerts by Santoor maestro Pt Shiv Kumar Sharma and flautist Hariprasad Chaurasia and ghazal singerJagjit Singh.

The festival will rope in corporate participation in golf and vintage car rally, she said.

Union minister for tourism Ambika Soni will inaugurate the festival and Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi, minister for broadcasting, will be the chief guest, she said.

The main attraction of the festival will be Pune Festival Golf Cup. Co-ordinator of the event, Prasanna Gokhale said the event would have participation from well-known corporate houses, including ITC, Cargill, Hero Honda Motors, Hyatt Regency, Forbes Group, Microsoft, and Ciba Specialities.

"We have confirmation from 20 companies and expect the number to increase substantially, Gokhale said. "Many diplomats are also expected to participate in the tournament," he added.

A vintage car and motorcycle fiesta, where 50 cars and motorcycles will be on show, will be another attraction of the event.

The festival has been sponsored by Idea Cellular and also enjoys support from Dodsal Limited, Raymond, Kirloskar Group, Bank of Maharashtra, NECC and ICICI Bank.