The iconic Mysuru palace which is the cynosure of all eyes and the masthead of tourism will be the backdrop in which thousands of people will ring in the New Year at midnight.
For, there will be fireworks lighting up the sky as the clock strikes 12 at midnight in the backdrop of the illuminated palace making the new year celebrations a memorable event.
Fire works as an event to ring on January 1, 2017, and the district administration and the palace board instantly recognised its potential to promote tourism and has been a regular affair since then but for a break during the pandemic.
The colorful images of the illuminated palace in the foreground and fireworks lighting up the dark skies at night instantly took the social media by storm.
The images in terms of grandeur matched the best from the major cities across the world which have a tradition of ringing in the new year with fireworks lighting up the skies in the backdrop of the landmark monuments and buildings.
The fire works will commence at midnight and last a good 15 minutes prior to which the public will be treated to a slew of cultural programmes including light classical music. But the show piece will be the performance from 11 p.m. to 12 a.m. by the Police Band which has a strong following given the level of professionalism they have achieved in playing instrumental music.
The countdown to the celebrations began more than a week ago when the Palace Flower Show was inaugurated by the Chief Minister, Mr. Siddaramaiah, on December 23 and will go on till December 31.
The flower show at the palace is also is an initiative that was launched a few years ago to draw more tourists to Mysuru during winter. The authorities also launched a ‘’A December to Remember’’ that included the flower show, cultural programmes and there was an occasional cake festival at a different venue in the run up to the new year.
This apart, there are various events arranged by people in the hospitality sector with theme parties for the new year celebrations. There are nearly 450 hotels and 10,500 rooms in Mysuru all of which are fully booked for the period December 22 to January 1 underlining Mysuru’s popularity as a destination for year-end travel and to ring in the new year.
The city police have also permitted the new year celebrations to go on till 1 a.m. while on the security front the authorities have deployed a strong posse of armed police, dog squad etc to ensure the safety of the public and women in particular. In all, 12 units of City Armed Reserve, 4 units of Karnataka State Reserve Police and 4 units of commandos to ensure that the new year celebrations passes off without any untoward incidents.
