Watching the show - Sonepur, India
A young Indian men watche girls dancing on the stage inside on of the theatres at Sonepur Mela, one of Asia's largest cattle fairs held in the Indian state of Bihar. The fair starts on Karthik Purnima (the full moon day) in November and lasts for around a month. It starts as a religious Hindu festival with thousands of pilgrims taking a ritual bath in Gandak river, near its confluence with the Ganges, on the full moon day. Soon the religious event transforms itself into a large fair trade and amusement park. Today, not only elephants, horses or cows are displayed and traded, but also countless goods and services, such as clothing, beauty products, food, electronics and cars. Many large and small Indian companies are present and have their booths and stalls at the fair. Together with commercial activities there are many entertainment options available. A festive, carnival atmosphere prevails - giant ferries wheels, numerous rides, wells of deaths, circuses and various performance shows offer amusement for families, children, women and men.
When it gets dark lights go on on facades of the largest structures of the mela - the theatres staging dancing girls shows and there is around ten of them. Soon queues of excited men form and security guards with wooden sticks keep them in order. Men with tickets in their hands impatiently wait to see young girls dancing on the stage. After 6pm the gates open and everybody rushes to get best seats - closer to the stage means being closer to the girls. A barbed wire fence separates the stage from rows of battered chairs. Around 8pm the show finally starts. Bollywood songs are on full volume and the excitement culminates. A large group of 20-30 girls dances on the stage to the sound of Indian hits - you see mostly young faces, heavy make-ups and colorful, mainly Western clothing. Some girls move without any enthusiasm clearly not enjoying being on the stage, while others are really into it - dance, sing and interact with the public. Reactions of the onlookers are also different - some have reserved and indifferent looks, others watch with eyes and mouth wide open and others enthusiastically shout and dance on their chairs and pass money to the best girls. Numerous mobile phones are filming the whole performance to enjoy the show again afterwards. The whole spectacle lasts around 2 hours, starts again on the next day and goes on for the whole duration of the mela.
A full feature on my website - Sonepur Mela Girl Shows: www.maciejdakowicz.com/sonepur-mela/girl-shows/
Watching the show - Sonepur, India
A young Indian men watche girls dancing on the stage inside on of the theatres at Sonepur Mela, one of Asia's largest cattle fairs held in the Indian state of Bihar. The fair starts on Karthik Purnima (the full moon day) in November and lasts for around a month. It starts as a religious Hindu festival with thousands of pilgrims taking a ritual bath in Gandak river, near its confluence with the Ganges, on the full moon day. Soon the religious event transforms itself into a large fair trade and amusement park. Today, not only elephants, horses or cows are displayed and traded, but also countless goods and services, such as clothing, beauty products, food, electronics and cars. Many large and small Indian companies are present and have their booths and stalls at the fair. Together with commercial activities there are many entertainment options available. A festive, carnival atmosphere prevails - giant ferries wheels, numerous rides, wells of deaths, circuses and various performance shows offer amusement for families, children, women and men.
When it gets dark lights go on on facades of the largest structures of the mela - the theatres staging dancing girls shows and there is around ten of them. Soon queues of excited men form and security guards with wooden sticks keep them in order. Men with tickets in their hands impatiently wait to see young girls dancing on the stage. After 6pm the gates open and everybody rushes to get best seats - closer to the stage means being closer to the girls. A barbed wire fence separates the stage from rows of battered chairs. Around 8pm the show finally starts. Bollywood songs are on full volume and the excitement culminates. A large group of 20-30 girls dances on the stage to the sound of Indian hits - you see mostly young faces, heavy make-ups and colorful, mainly Western clothing. Some girls move without any enthusiasm clearly not enjoying being on the stage, while others are really into it - dance, sing and interact with the public. Reactions of the onlookers are also different - some have reserved and indifferent looks, others watch with eyes and mouth wide open and others enthusiastically shout and dance on their chairs and pass money to the best girls. Numerous mobile phones are filming the whole performance to enjoy the show again afterwards. The whole spectacle lasts around 2 hours, starts again on the next day and goes on for the whole duration of the mela.
A full feature on my website - Sonepur Mela Girl Shows: www.maciejdakowicz.com/sonepur-mela/girl-shows/