The Captivating Magic of Summer Festival in Ooty

The Summer Festival in Ooty, May 18-20, promises to bring together a riot of colors, shows, and pageantries. The endless repertoire of shows includes flower exhibitions, aside from shows on rose, vegetable, spice, and fruits. Boat race and boat pageantry at the festival will mesmerize you with its resplendence and magic. Each year, new themes and pageants get added to the festival, while you get to see hundreds of additional varieties of fruits, vegetables, and spices every year. The show also highlights the traditional culture of Todas, the native tribe.

While there’s an endless to do and to see list at this Ooty summer festival, the notable ones include the following:

Flower show: Organized for the first time in 1896, the show continues each year at the Botanical Garden where over 150 flower varieties are displayed.

Rose show: The Government Rose Garden is home to over 3000 varieties of roses on display. Rose petal rangolis and rose towers made of thousands of roses will impress you.

Fruit show: Organized by the Department of Horticulture at Sim’s park, the fruit show displaying endless varieties of fruits has been held every year for the last 53 years.

Vegetable show: Organized by the Department of Horticulture at NehruPark in Kotagiri, the first thing to attract your attention here is a huge map of India made out of colorful capsicums – red, green and yellow.

Spice Show: Organized by the District Administration, Gudalur and the Departments of Horticulture and Tourism, the show is held at St. ThomasHigherSecondary School.

Dog Show: Some of the rare and the best breeds of dogs can be seen at the Government Art College Ground, where the show is organized by South of India Kennel Club.

Over and above these shows, boat race at Ooty lake, and music, dance, and drama programs at Breeks HADP open air stadium will showcase the best classical arts tradition of India. In fact the festival package in Ooty includes an endless list if you can find time and inclination. You may choose one or more among painting competition, amateur photo competition, marathon race, vintage car rally, eco-trekking program, hot air balloon show and many more to visit or participate in.

The summer festival hosted in the GovernmentBotanical Garden has some of the rarest trees like the cork and paper bark tree. If they don’t excite your curiosity, the monkey puzzle tree will certainly do, for a monkey cannot climb this tree. The list of surprises at the Botanical Garden is perhaps topped by a 20 million year old fossilized tree. No wonder, this botanical garden, spread over 55 acres, was a rare gift that Marquis of Tweedale in 1847 bestowed upon Ooty.

A quick toy train ride courtesy the Nilgiri Mountain Railway, is highly recommended, if you haven’t done it before. This miniature train was given world heritage status by UNESCO. There are fine ways of forest, waterfalls, and tea plantations along the way especially from the front 1^st class carriage. While the magic of Ooty summer festival will leave you ecstatic, nature lovers cannot resist the temptation to devour the splendid sights of this world away from the world.