Indian Ambassador to Egypt Rahul Kulshreshth inaugurated, Wednesday, the Indian Food Fiesta, which is part of the activities of the 8th India by the Nile (IBN) festival 2020.



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In his inaugural speech, Ambassador Kulshreshth expressed his happiness at the continued success of the IBN, saying: "India by the Nile is a successful depiction of our civilisational ties, and our mutual love and understanding for each other’s culture and traditions, a celebration of deep rooted, ever growing, distinctive people to people relations between two great civilisations of the world."



"Since its inception in 2013, IBN has come a long way to become one of the largest foreign cultural festivals in Egypt, owing to the love and warmth with which Egyptians have received this event in different cities of Egypt. The Embassy of India in Egypt is very glad to support IBN 2020, presented by Teamwork Arts, which will be a multifaceted canvas with colours of Indian art, yoga, music, dance, theatre, and cuisine," he added.



At the Semiramis InterContinental Hotel, the opening dinner was presided over by IBN art director and one of the pillars of Teamwork Arts Company, Ila Gupta, who introduced The Kutle Khan Project. The group gave a live performance of heady folk music from the desert sands of Rajasthan, flavoured with contemporary global music trends.

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Attending the dinner were a galaxy of public figures, diplomats, media personalities and artists, such as Ambassador of Spain to Egypt Ramon Gil Casares, writer Mohamed Salmawy and his wife, painter Nazli Madkour, director of Maulana Azad Centre for Indian Culture (MACIC) Dr Liyaqath Ali, actress Dina Abdallah, head of Nile TV International Taghreed Hussein, singers Mohamed Tharwat and Iman Al-Bahr Darwish, who rocked the stage, singing one of his old and much-loved songs. This in addition to Semiramis InterContinental Hotel resident manager Sebastian Thomas and director of marketing communications Nabila Samak.

This year, the Food Fiesta is headed by chef Vikram Udaygiri. The celebrated chef and entrepreneur is the founder of Food Sense, a venture that specialises in setting up restaurants, micro-breweries, and cloud kitchens.



Udaygiri has worked in over 26 countries and is also a first generation “agripreneur" who has ventured into producing high-quality microgreens, sprouts and edible flowers. His expertise lies in curating festivals around the world that promote traditional and modern regional Indian cuisine. He has curated a delectable gastronomical journey in Indian fine dining from the country’s vast cuisine repertoire, running at the Semiramis InterContinental Hotel from 4 to 8 March.



The IBN festival runs from 2 to 10 March in Cairo, Alexandria, Fayoum and Port Said.





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