Telangana food fest sans publicity draws thin crowds

Necklace Road: It was a pleasant surprise for the family from Chennai who visited the Necklace Road on Saturday. "I didn't know about the food festival," said Madhavi Nath a visitor who is in the city for a vacation.

Like her, many visitors to the Necklace Road were in for a surprise to find the Telangana Food Festival that was inaugurated on Saturday by V Srinivas Goud, Minister of Prohibition, Excise, Sports, YAT & C and Archaeology.

Mallika K, a software professional, said, "The food festival that was conducted by the Tourism Department at the Parade Grounds was on a grand scale but this one pales in shadow." There are just 32 stalls at the festival. Officials at the Tourism department say that they received approval to conduct the festival on May 31 and as a result could not accommodate more stalls.

Raghuram, a food blogger, said, "I came to know about the food festival through a friend. Better publicity would have helped."

On the first day, 2,500 people visited the festival. Telangana cuisine has been given prominence with a majority of the stalls serving delicacies such as sakinalu, sarvepindi, harshalu, garjalu and items made with millets. There are stalls serving Hyderabadi biryani and patter ka gosh as well.