The 24th edition of the Pokhara Street Festival is scheduled to begin on Wednesday.

The five-day festival is being organised by the Pokhara Chapter of the Restaurant and Bar Association of Nepal (REBAN). The street festival is also the biggest cultural show in the country. The street festival will have cultural activities, local food, and musical performance along a three-kilometre stretch. Other activities include boat races and paragliding.

The organisers hope the festival will attract domestic as well as foreign visitors and promote tourism stalled by the Covid-19 pandemic.

“We have completed the preparations to host the festival from Fishtail Gate at Lakeside to Jarebar through Khahare Chowk,” said Naresh Bahadur Bhattarai, chairman of the Pokhara Chapter of REBAN. “We hope the festival will help revive the tourism sector, which has been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic.”

“The festival will be organised without disturbing the movement of essential services vehicles,” said Bishwa Raj Poudel, the media coordinator for the festival.

While the Lok Dohori programmes will be organised at Komagane park from 1 to 6 pm, the live concerts will be held until 10 in the evening.

The organisers have also arranged a night bus service to facilitate the visitors during the festival.

While the bus service will be made available from Shahid Chowk and Dihikopatan to Bagar, Lamachaur and Amar Singh Chowk up to 11 pm, the service will be extended further as per needs on December 30 and 31, the new year's eve, according to the organisers.

When it began in 1998, the festival was organised for a single day.

The tourism entrepreneurs in Pokhara believe the festival has succeeded in establishing itself at the national level.

The festival, which has been instrumental in promoting adventurous sports such as paragliding in Pokhara and homestay business in Kaski and the neighbouring districts, sees a high number of domestic visitors.

Hotel occupancy is expected to be full during the street festival period.

Pokhara’s tourism industry depends on trekking. But during the winter, the city’s tourism takes a backseat as the hilly regions around Annapurna, Dhaulagiri and Manaslu – the major tourist destinations – get colder.

The festival was started two decades ago to tap into the possibility of attracting tourists coming downhill from their treks. Previously, foreign tourists would visit India, Thailand or their own native country to celebrate the New Year, but the festival has given them the option to stay in Pokhara.

REBAN is expecting around 400,000 visitors during the festival.