The Magic India festival troupe arrived in Brazil as heavy snow fell around many of their home countries in Northern Europe. Having previously toured Australia for the last three Summers under the name Le Carnaval Sprituel, the same devotees have now just embarked on an 8 week tour of Brazil joining up with local devotees under the name The Magic India. Vaikuntha Murti who has been running a successful festival program in Brazil for many years invited the troupe to add experience and a new dynamic and to the existing program.

Domonique from Poland who has been doing the main groundwork with Vaikuntha Murti gives us an insight into the vision for this years tour. “Weather its Le Carnaval Spirituel in Australia, Festival Indii in Poland or The Magic India here in Brazil, the idea is to present the essence of Krsna Consciousness in a festive and extremely professional manner. The tour is separated into two sections. The first portion of the tour will be indoor festivals in theatres and public halls. The second section of the tour will be large outdoor festivals open to everyone, similar to what we do in Poland. We hope in this way to reach a large variety of people here in Brazil.”

The festival team now with decades of experience mixed with talented and enthusiastic youth has already arrived in Brazil in the grandest of fashion. Broadcasting on Brazilian National television to millions of viewers, the troup kicked off their advertising campaign. Indradyumna Swami explains “The TV show is one of the most popular in Brazil. The 20 minute production included portions of each of our acts and was a huge success. I spoke about our festival as well as the philosophy of Bhagavad Gita. The phone hasn’t stopped ringing for tickets to our first festival in downtown Sau Paulo on Thursday.”

Joining the team this year are BB Govinda Swami and his Silk Road Bhajana band, who are equally well travelled and who worked with the festival team before, having spent many years delighting crowds at the Polish Woodstock festival with their Krsna Kirtana. The indoor festivals themselves will host a talk on the Bhagavad Gita which will be mixed into a dynamic stage show, consisting of drama, dance, yoga, martial arts, music and Kirtana. The outdoor festivals will be bigger with many activities for guests to take part in as well as a longer more elaborate stage show.

“Things don’t always go to plan.” commented Vanamali with a smile, “For our first show the stage lights were still clearing customs. But the people always love the festivals and each one will just keep getting better as we progress. It’s going to be a long blissful 8 weeks for us and the people of Brazil!”

The whole tour runs from November 28th to January 17th. For more details please check out

http://www.festivaldaindia.com.br/home.html

http://www.travelingmonk.com/