20th Nagaland Hornbill Festival

The Nagaland Hornbill Festival began at Naga Heritage Village at Kisama in Nagaland on 1 December 2019. The year 2019 celebrates the 20th edition of Hornbill Festival and the festival this year coincides with Nagaland Statehood Day. The much-awaited festival began with a colourful blend of culture and tradition with a modern twist.

About Nagaland Hornbill Festival

Hornbill festival is also known as ‘Festival of Festivals’ and is named after hornbill bird. This festival symbolises ‘Respect and ‘Folklore’ among Nagas.

The festival is an annual tourism promotional event to showcase north eastern state’s traditional and rich cultural heritage in all its ethnicity, diversity and grandeur. It is organised by state government of Nagaland.

Through the festival Naga people come together and unite through their cultures thereby upholding the enormous richness on their culture and traditions which has been passed down to them by their ancestors.

Nagaland Hornbill Festival 2019

The 10 Days Hornbill Festival began with traditional blessing pronounced by Mongtei of Aniashu village while Chief host, Nagaland Governor R N Ravi and Host, Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio opened festival by beating traditional gong. This year’s annual Hornbill Festival is set to get bigger with a new global partner and a mantra of zero-waste.

Celebrations: The Festival will witness cultural performance of different tribes of Nagaland and Northeastern States, indigenous games, night carnival, city tour, art exhibition, photo-fest  among others. The festival included a colourful display of Naga Culture themed as ‘Colours of Nagaland’.  A display of Sukhoi aircraft flying over Kisama site was also organised in close coordination between state government and Eastern Air Command (IAF) (headquartered in Shillong). Nagaland government has also partnered with Airbnb in hope that deal would boost state’s tourism potential.