Thousands of people chanting, dancing and, of course, throwing colors – for peace, love and unity!

New Vrindaban’s third annual Festival of Colors brought out 5,000 participants to “color their lives and throw their worries to the wind!” This was the message that hit home with most all of the festivalgoers that day. Everyone had the time of their lives.

“As you can see, the Festival of Colors in Moundsville today was a complete success!”  This was the declaration made by Sarafina Brooks, a reporter from the local TV Channel, WTOV 9 who appeared on TV Sat. Sept. 13, 2014 ­­covered from head to toe in green powdered chalk.  It’s clear that the local image of New Vrindaban is changing to one of peace, love and unity.

One young man who was there for his very first Festival of Colors was excited to say, “When we threw the colors up in the air, it was just like standing in the middle of a rainbow!”  Every half hour there was a wild color throw, accompanied by live mantra music from one of five bands, who played continuously throughout the day. The bands enthusiastically engaged thousands of people present in chanting the Holy Name, dancing, and throwing colors.   Thousands of people also got to enjoy delectable vegetarian food known as “prasadam”, including New Vrindaban home grown, home cooked sweet potato fries and other delights.  Over 100 Krishna-conscious books were sold to eager buyers.

This Festival of Colors was featured on the front page of a prominent local newspaper.  There was huge media coverage, with WTRF Channel 7, WTOV Channel 9, WV Public Radio, and three other newspapers.  Two of the TV channels even came before the Festival to do previews.  This type of coverage was unprecedented in all of New Vrindaban’s Festivals of Color to date.  Channel 7 announced, “ There might have been mostly gray skies over most of the Ohio Valley Saturday, but there were rainbows over the Palace of Gold in Marshall County.“

Many of the guests also took tours of Prabhupada’s Palace of Gold and the Rose Gardens, wanting to know more about the beautiful and transcendental tourist attraction surrounding them.  Some bikers attended for their first time and one of them said, “This really isn’t a biker thing, but it’s a blast!  It’s all about love.  It’s a good time. Just hanging out with the people and nobody being mad.  You couldn’t do this with a bunch of bikers!”

Vrindavana das, organizer of the Festival commented, “This year it was more than just a good time.  This Ohio Valley has so many good people and they are feeling like this is becoming their festival.  People from all backgrounds are promoting love, friendship and unity.  They’re celebrating life together!  What could be better?”

Media coverage link: 

http://www.wtrf.com/story/26525843/third-annual-hare-krishna-color-fest-brings-in-hundreds

http://www.wtov9.com/news/features/top-stories/stories/thousands-gather-festival-color-5680.shtml

http://www.wtov9.com/news/features/top-stories/stories/festival-colors-set-saturday-marshall-county-5677.shtml

http://www.wtrf.com/story/26507827/festival-of-colors-this-weekend-in-marshall-county

http://wvpublic.org/post/marshall-co-hare-krishna-village-reinvents-itself-food-color-and-community

http://www.thedaonline.com/news/article_d816421e-3a36-11e4-ab49-0017a43b2370.html

http://www.timesleaderonline.com/page/content.detail/id/562569/3rd-Annual-Festival-of-Colors-Sept–13.html?nav=5014

http://www.theintelligencer.net/page/content.detail/id/611581/New-Vrindaban–To-Host-Festival.html?nav=6962