Sponsors get into sheri garba groove

Ahmedabad: The flavour of sheri garba is back, and so is the glam factor. Not only are popular artists and singers targeting residential societies across Ahmedabad, but sponsors also are eyeing to fund locally organized garba. With the state government banning commercial events, many residential societies have been flooded with offers of sponsorship and collaborations from cloud kitchens, real estate developers, jewellers, food businesses, and even banks.

“We have received several requests from food and hospitality brands for collaborations, and we are on the verge of finalizing names. A company which runs a food truck is already conducting trial runs at the society. Since commercial garba functions will not take place this time, we have receive more sponsorship and collaboration requests than previous years,” said Chiranjiv Jha, chairperson of a residential society in Makarba.

“Garba has been allowed after a good two years and therefore, sponsors are also excited to fund garba events in residential societies. Over the past few years except last year, we never faced much problem getting sponsorship but this year, the response is so exceptionally good that we don’t have much space to put up food stalls or banners,” said Jaymin Patel, secretary of a society in South Bopal area of the city.

Businesses who used to cater to commercial and ticketed events until two years ago have shifted focus towards residential societies this year. Jigar Soni, an Ahmedabad-based jeweller, said, “Till last year, we used to market our brand by sponsoring garba at clubs and other commercial events organised at party plots. However, this time around, we are funding events at popular residential societies and townships too. Even though our budgets have shrunk, the response is tremendously good this year, wherever we’ve collaborated and put up our banners.”

Similar is the case with those in catering business, who are now moving towards private events with more exclusive offerings. Narendra Somani, a city-based hotelier said, “We are catering to small-scale private events at farm houses and private party plots this year, unlike clubs and commercial events earlier. We look forward to doing good business.”