Guests having a blast, along with devotees, at the colorful New Mayapur Holi Festival. 

On June 23, 2024, ISKCON New Mayapur, situated in the serene countryside of Centre-Val de Loire, France, organized a Holi Festival mainly attended by locals from nearby towns and villages. For those who are accustomed to croissants, baguettes, and the Fete de la Musique, a completely different kind of Indian festival with traditional Indian music, dance, and throwing colors on one another provided a huge surprise and fun for all. Food stalls, clothes and jewelry kiosks, face-painting, mehendi, traditional Indian music, a variety of classical Indian dance performances, and a free bullock cart ride around the New Mayapur village to boot. The festival, albeit small, was colorful and diverse.

“Decades after Indradyumna Swami organized a great Indian festival that was a crowd-puller, with elephants and the Indian ambassador to France as a special guest, this is the beginning of the revival of New Mayapur as Western Europe’s grand Indian festival spot,” said Locanananda Das, President of New Mayapur. 

This year, two Indian professional dancers, Monisa and Reshmi, came all the way from India to conduct performances of Indian classical dances Kathak and Sattrohi and also train the devotee dancers in New Mayapur. They conducted a dance workshop for three days and offered group dance performances with local French and Indian devotee dancers. Even the kids in New Mayapur greatly enjoyed the dance workshops and became eager to learn Indian classical dance.

A devotee couple from Spain flew in to handle the entire arrangements for the festival, including the food stalls, and prepared delicious delicacies. “Everyone had a whale of a time, throwing colors on each other and dancing around, and for most, this was the first time they ever played Holi,” said Gandharvika Devi Dasi, Vice President of New Mayapur. “The local French crowd was delighted, and many of them said they would like to visit again for more such festivals and open markets where they can visit India-themed stalls.”

“For decades, New Mayapur underwent several struggles, including threats from the authorities to close down the temple, the castle leaking, and the property in need of repairs; our focus was first on saving the temple and the property, keeping it open and livable. Despite a mammoth loan of 250,000 euros that we are working to pay off, we decided to bring back the good old times and restart the grand festivals. This Holi celebration is a baby step, but we plan to have much grander celebrations in the coming months and years. We aim to make New Mayapur festivals well-known throughout the world for huge Indian festivals and to make this place a sought-after one for all those wanting to enjoy Indian festivals in Western Europe,” Locanandana Das added. 

With this in mind, the temple management is working on building a restaurant by converting the old barn, modernizing the guest house, renovating the castle that houses the temple, and also repairing the property to accommodate more visitors. “The festival season has just started here; we will soon have Lord Balarama’s Appearance Day, which is usually bigger and grander than Janmastami itself, as New Mayapur is Europe’s first Krishna Balarama temple, with deities installed by Srila Prabhupada himself, other than Sri Vrindavan Dham,” noted Gandharvika Rai Devi Dasi. 

To organize retreats, weddings, and workshops in New Mayapur or to visit the community, please see our website for more information. To offer financial support to New Mayapur to help with their loan or other projects mentioned, click here.