Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh, is set to personally invite Ms Chowdhary for the inauguration of the crafts mela of the festival. The festival will start on February 12.

The Heritage Society is still pitching for the start of a light and sound show at the Quila Mubarak to showcase the fort complex in all its glory. This project was earlier conceived by the ITDC and will also be executed by the company. However, funds for the project have still not been cleared by the ministry. The Heritage Society under the chairmanship of Patiala MP Preneet Kaur is expected to pitch for the start of this show this year itself and getting the Union Tourism Minister is expected to give a fillip to these efforts.

Coupled with the Heritage Festival, the Heritage Society wants the Crafts Mela held here to have the same kind of fan following as the Surajkund Crafts Mela. Deputy Commissioner Tejveer Singh said the mela, which was sponsored by the Tourism Ministry, would have more than 150 master craftspersons participating in it. He said besides stress on crafts, folk dances, rural entertainment and food stalls would form a part of the mela. He said this time efforts would be made to entertain more crafts persons from Punjab as well as from Patiala.

Meanwhile, the Heritage Society has planned to provide a mix of excellent music, dances and qawwal maestros who will perform during the week-long festival. For the first time a Patiala theatre group, led by Manpal Tiwana, son of the late Harpal Tiwana, will be participating in the festival. The group will stage Harpal Tiwana’s famous “Sirhind di Deewar”.

The detailed programme of the festival is as follows: Malavika Sarukkai, a Bharatnatyam dancer, will perform on February 12; sitar maestro Shujaat Ali Khan and acclaimed vocalist Parween Sultana will perform on February 13, Savita Devi and Pt Anant Lal will present ‘jugalbandi of vocal and Shehnai of the Banaras gharana on February 14 alongwith a santoor recital by Shiv Kumar Sharma. Kiren Segal and Bharati Shivaji will perform a ‘jugalbandi’ of Odissi and mohiniattam dance on February 15 alongwith mohan veena specialist Vishvamohan Bhatt who will perform on the same day.

On February 16 there will be a seminar on “Punjabi influence on Hindi Cinema” and “Sirhind di Deewar”, on February 17 a fashion show will showcase the works of Sabyasachi Mukerjee, Satya Paul and Rina Latif besides a kavi darbar. On February 18 an exhibition of paintings curated by Dr Rajiv Lochan of the National Gallery of Modern Art will be inaugurated at the Banasar Art Gallery. Ashish Khan will perform on sitar while Farid Ayaz from Pakistan will give a ‘qawwali’ performance the same day. Rahat Fateh Ali Khan will give a qawwali performance on February 19 while February 20 will see a pop concert being held at the YPS stadium.