The Two-day Pinjore Heritage Festival beginning December 21 will be a historic affair this year, Haryana Additional Chief Secretary, Tourism, Vijay Vardhan said on Wednesday, listing the programmes to be held in the annual festival.

On the first day, Jasbir Jassi who is known for a string of hit music albums will bring in the Punjabi folk and pop flavour while on December 22, the visitors will be treated to the voice of Madhushree who is famous for singing in Hindi, Bengali, Kannada, Tamil and Telugu films.

This time, school students and senior citizens visiting the festival will be provided the facility of free entry at the Festival. Apart from this, the entry fee for tourists has also been reduced from Rs 25 to Rs 15 per person.

Haryana Tourism Minister Kanwar Pal will inaugurate the festival on December 21.

Vijai Vardhan said that the Haryana Tourism Corporation had organized the first Heritage Festival at Pinjore Garden in the year 2006; to maintain the unique heritage of Pinjore and its famous gardens and now the festival is organised every year.  He said that during this festival the garden and its palaces are beautifully decorated and the arched, water channels adorned with marigold linings are also decorated with red rose petals.

In the festival,   dance artist will perform Kachchhi Ghodi dance, Bhangra, Jindua, Baazigar, Nagara, Himachali Nati, Kalbelia and folk singers will remain the highlight of the festival.

During the day, many competitions, such as rangoli making, face painting, and applying mehndi are organised for school students coming from Chandigarh and Panchkula.

Vijai Vardhan  said another attraction of the festival is the Crafts Bazaar, where craftsmen from different parts of the country are invited to display their handlooms and handicrafts and apart from the pottery items, tourists will also be able to purchase the costumes of handicrafts from states such as Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab, UP, Haryana and J&K.