Elephant Festival Jaipur, The Elephant Festival is an annual festival which is held every year in the Pink City, Jaipur. This matchless event is organised on the full moon day of Phalgun Purnima which falls in the month of February/March. It is celebrated on the day before the festivals of colours i.e. Holi.
For this festival, elephants are nicely groomed and clothed with colourful and embroidered velvets rugs and parasols and other heavy ornaments like huge elephant jewellery and anklets decked with bells.
This festival begins with the huge and fascinating procession of the royal elephants painted with different shades of colours, decorated with heavy silver ornaments, and embroidered clothes. The elephants enter the ground with their mahouts, thumping to the sound of nagadas and loud blows of bankiya, a musical instrument.
The participant elephants are all females. Elephant polo, Elephant race, the tug-of-war between Elephant and 19 men and women are the special features of this grand festival. There are live performances of dancers and musicians too. In addition to this, in the procession there are chariots, lancers on horses, camels, and palanquins. This festival is enjoyed by a huge number of crowds including the visitors from different parts of India as well as abroad. This festival, organised by Rajasthan Tourism and has now become an important part of its’ annual events calendar. In previous time, this festival was held at the Chaugan Stadium located in the old city area of Jaipur but due to the increase in crowds and fame, its venue got changed in 2011 and has been shifted to Jaipur Polo Ground which is opposite to the Sawai Mansingh Stadium.