We’ve all seen that advert by Sony where the couple get involved in a paint throwing festival in India, or probably a spread in National Geographic about the Hindu celebration or you may even have a friend who headed east to find themselves and got caught up in the mix.
For me I always thought it looked so much fun but a trip to India was not an immediate priority having just moved countries and dealt with all that. I plan on leaving those far off destinations until I am a little more of a seasoned traveler, I wouldn’t want to go all that way and miss something!
Luckily for me a US company hosts their very own Holi festivals all over the country, they have yoga tents, DJs, Hare Krishna chantings and amazing food to fill your time between the hourly paint throwing. The festival is a family friendly event, they have a strict no drugs, no drink, no smoking, policy which I loved! And unlike most festivals, despite growing in popularity, these guys haven’t upped their prices, they haven’t used their name to attract bigger names or changed their core values. It’s a fun, family day out, reasonably priced (all in it cost us $13 a head) with a great atmosphere.
The festival ran 11am-5pm, we arrived at noon and bought our paint packets and the throwing began.
They have an hourly mass throwing where everyone counts down and throws at everyone and the sky, although to be honest I preferred to watch this from afar more than be in the thick of it. I mean I’ve dealt with mosh pits since the tender age of 13 so the crowd didn’t scare me – this one was far nicer than a bunch of hardcore kids, it was just so pretty to see the puffs of neon paint fly up into the bright blue sky.
We three paint on each other, on strangers passing by, and were attacked by the groups of children running wild and free. But no one did it aggressively. I felt like a hippy in the 60s, all peach and love, baby!
We left the festival after about two hours. Rus, his sister Kellie and I are all whiter than the driven snow and being out in the sun is a dangerous hobby of ours. But we’d seen all the clothing tents, we’d eaten some fabulous vegan food, we’d chatted to the holistic therapists and got well and truly covered head to toe in a rainbow of colours.
The paint is a powder paint, on the website it suggests shaking your clothing free of as much paint powder as possible prior to washing to avoid staining which is what it does when wet. The only problem is you can’t help but sweat in the heat of the day and purple armpits at the gym certainly receives attention!
And can we all just take a moment to appreciate my husbands beard…
Flop! 