The Indian Community of Southland is hosting the festival of light at Invercargill’s ILT Stadium Southland this Saturday from 11am to 7pm.
There will be a mix of popular and unique Indian cuisine as well as a very special performance from Indian classical dancer Meghranjani Medhi.
Medhi said she would be performing three pieces in one of India’s eight traditional dance forms, Kathak.
The three pieces would include devotional pieces to the Indian Gods Ganesha and Shiva and a technical piece to showcase her ability.
"The second item I will be doing is a very technical piece with the pure form of my dance.
"This dance has many spins and some footwork where I will be wearing ankle bracelets with 150 bells on each foot so it will be rhythmic when I make spins."
She started learning Kathak at 3 years old and her mother, Marami Medhi, was her teacher, or guru.
She said it meant a lot to her to be able to perform the dance around the world.
"I feel like Indian culture is very rich and colourful and spreading it to different countries across the globe is a matter of immense responsibility as well as a matter of happiness.
"I am very proud that I belong to India and taking such a rich dance form and spreading it to people of different cultures is something I look forward to."
Along with Medhi’s performance, the audience would have the opportunity to sample some authentic Indian cuisine.
Manjula Singh is excited to be bringing her hometown Lucknow’s Awadhi cuisine to Southland.
As well as the popular butter chicken her stall will have a Lucknow style Biryani as well as Lucknow delicacy, the tundey kebab.
The tundey kebab was made of a mix of 36 different ingredients including minced lamb and a variety of Indian spices.
Mrs Singh said the dish was invented when the Mugal empire ruled Lucknow.
The king, or Nawab at that time was very old and could not chew his food so a chef named Tundey created the boneless kebab that would melt in your mouth, she said.
Mrs Singh said Tundey Kebab was a famous restaurant in Lucknow that opened in 1905 and to this day people from all over India still visited it.
Foodies@Invers food truck owner Dhawal Parashar said preparation was in full swing for his stall at the festival as well.
He would be serving authentic Mumbai street food including pani puri, bhel puri, samosas and mango lassi.
