Pahalgam Winter Festival 2018 to promote culture and heritage of Kashmir

The upcoming Pahalgam Winter Festival, which is scheduled to take place on February 17 and 18, will allow tourists to get a taste of rural Kashmiri culture. The Jammu and Kashmir Tourism department issued a statement that this two-day ‘Pahalgam Festival’ will be an important event to attract tourists to this valley.

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Mehmood Shah, Director of Kashmir Tourism said, “The festival will start on February 17 and it will showcase our ethnic cuisine, street food, and handicrafts, it will have village walks, forest walks and tonga (chariot) rides to promote the culture and heritage of Kashmir.” He added that this event will be different as locals of the area will be actively involved to offer tourists unique experiences of Kashmir.

Shah also added, “Pahalgam is primarily a summer destination but this event will attract the tourists in winter also. North Kashmir ski resort Gulmarg usually remains the centre of winter tourism, but this event is an invitation to travellers across the country and outside the country to visit Pahalgam in the winter as well.” The tourism department has even started ice-climbing in this region to highlight the aspects of winter tourism.

There will be a segment of shadow art featured during the festival, for which people from Kolkata have been roped in. This will be the first time when Kashmir is organising such an activity.


Due to unrest and some other factors, the valley has witnessed a dip in the footfall of tourists. To counter it, the tourism department is doing aggressive campaigning looking to wooing tourists and clearing the ‘negative image’ of the valley.