Hornbill Festival 2016 culminates with ‘Unity Dance’

The ten-day Hornbill Festival came to an end Saturday in a glittering closing ceremony held at the Naga Heritage Village, Kisama where hundreds of guests and visitors, including foreign, domestic and local, joined the cultural troupes of 16 Naga tribes as they performed the Unity Dance around the bonfire.
Though the inaugural function on December 1 was not as expected, the closing ceremony was impressive as the Tetseo Sisters, Abiogenesis and the Bangalore Conservatory (Handbell ensemble) pulled off performances that was befitting.
The presence of Miss Nagaland 2016 Vilokali Zhimomi also added colour to the closing ceremony as she along with the parliamentary secretary tourism, C. Apok Jamir, lit the bonfire.
In his closing speech, the state chief minister, TR Zeliang, thanked all the participants, various government departments, cultural troupes, tourists and all the people involved for their contribution to the success of the Hornbill Festival. He also acknowledged the department of tourism, the nodal department for coordinating all the programmes.
Further, Zeliang acknowledged Assam chief minister, Sarbananda Sonowal, for gracing the inaugural ceremony as guest of honour and the Assam cultural troupes for their cultural presentations. He also thanked Nagaland governor, PB Acharya, for patronizing the Hornbill Festival by gracing the opening and closing function as chief guest.
While acknowledging many others, Zeliang wished the audience a blessed Christmas season and prosperous New Year.
According to the department of tourism, on the last day of the festival, 265 foreign tourists were registered, 2019 domestic tourists and 10,000 local visitors. Altogether, from day 1-10, around 1646 foreign tourists, 14962 domestic tourists and 95996 local visitors were registered.
Earlier, state governor, PB Acharya, unveiled the Nagaland Vision Document 2030 and also gave away gifts to the 10 cultural troupes.