LAMJUNG: The 19th Ghalegaun Festival would be organised at Ghalegaun, which is also known as the model village of South Asia, from May 6.

The Ghalegaun Rural Tourism Management Committee would be organising the three-day festival keeping up with the local traditions, the Committee informed at a press conference in Besisahar today.

Ghalegaun has been organising the festival for the past 19 years with an objective of promoting tourism by publicising local art, culture and village lifestyle, informed Prem Ghale of the Committee.

Stating that the previous festivals have helped in promoting the village, the organisers said that the festival would give a message of economic prosperity.

Various programmes including Gurung Food Festival, handicrafts, sightseeing, observing Gurung Museum, the tea garden, traditional dances including Ghatu, Sorathi, Serka, and Krishna Charitra among others, sunrise, sunset, local home stay and rural tourism would be the main attraction of festival.

More than 10,000  tourists had visited the place in the last fiscal year.

According to Ghale, the locals earn at least Rs 500,000 through tourism every year. Around 200 tourists visit the place daily, he informed.

Meanwhile, the migrants, who had left the village for job opportunities abroad, have started returning home to develop the village.

"Local youth started taking interest in tourism after the village was selected as a model village of SAARC nation. Everyone has started getting job opportunities through rural tourism here," said Secretary at the Ghalegaun Rural Tourism Development Committee Umal Bahadur BK.

Domestic tourism has started increasing in Ghalegaun after transportation facilities reached this model village.

The first Ghalegaun Festival was organised in 2057 BS for two days.