The 3 day Desert Festival in Jaisalmer was loads of fun when we were there in Feb 1998. Sure, people will argue it's very touristy and probably no where near as colourful as Pushkar's Camel Fair as it is a tourist festival. But it was fun, lots of things to see, and most importantly lots of FANTASTIC music and dancing in the open-air cultural shows each evening. We just loved the music of India.

One thing that was interesting about the Festival was that tourists, especially foreign tourists, were given special treatment by Festival organisers. We were able to sit in the grandstands in the Stadium and in some of the best seats at the Polo Ground. Locals (and there were very large crowds) had to make do with standing and craning their necks to see. I estimate that the make-up of the crowd would have been about 80% locals, 15% middle class Indian tourists and 5% foreigners.

Day 1. The first day starts with a very colourful Ceremonial Procession from Gadsisar Lake through the streets of Jaisalmer and the main market, ending at the Shahid Poonam Singh Stadium not far from the centre of town. The procession consists of highly decorated camels, a camel-mounted marching band, eunuch dancers, musicians, traditionally dressed people, and contestants in the various categories of competitions over the 3 days. After the procession ends, there follows a series of events and competitions on the elevated stage in the middle of the ground. This includes folk dances, an equivalent to a female beauty competition, a "Mr Desert" competition (photo), best moustache competition and others. These competitions have a very distinct Indian, indeed Rajasthani flavour, with the contestants dressed up in very traditional brightly-colourful clothing and decorated with very elaborate jewellery and swords. A turban-tying competition also takes place, first amongst Indians (most who are tourists themselves), and then foreigners. I deeply regret not entering this, as I would have won easily due to my practice on our 3 day camel safari earlier. All winners of the contests were given their awards by the State Premier/Governor of Rajasthan, who was an honoured guest and opened the Festival.

Later a craft fair is opened at another ground (which we missed). Then in the evening, a cultural program takes place back at the Stadium. For us, this (and similar programs on subsequent nights) were the highlight of the festival. The different traditional Rajasthani folk music and dancing items were absolutely wonderful, and of extremely high quality. They were all preceded with a commentary in Hindi and then English over the loudspeaker prior to each item. All this is performed with the Jaisalmer Fort as a brightly-lit backdrop. Awesome! The evening ended in quite a reasonable fireworks display.

Day 2. On the second day, events moved out to the Dedansar Polo Ground, a reasonably long walk out of town. Events included camel races, camel polo, a strongest camel competition (those beasts were huge), a decorated camel competition, and some tug-of-war competitions. Later there was a "camel tattoo show" back at the Stadium. We missed this, so I couldn't tell you what it included. Finally at the end of day two, a similar music and dancing program was performed at the Stadium, with more fireworks.

Day 3. This day's program comprised another evening cultural music and dance program, this time out at the Sam Sand Dunes, 42km (26m) West of Jaisalmer. We were talked into going out early, where we were inundated with offers to go for a short camel ride over the dunes. The evening show was good in a great setting, but was plagued with periodical power disruptions (for the lighting and the PA system). The trip back to town in our crowded jeep was long and slow along the solidly jammed single road, getting to our room after midnight. In hindsight, we could have happily missed that final day's program.