New Vrindaban’s first Pittsburgh FOC – “Good day, good vibes, good people”
The first Pittsburgh Festival of Colors on Sat. April 19, 2014 was fabulous!
The crowd at Pittsburgh FOC
This family-friendly event was a big hit in Schenley Park, Pittsburgh. It was the first time that the Festival of Colors had come to Pittsburgh, and we heard from many that Pittsburgh wants to do it again next year! Pittsburgh is a great city with a diverse cultural spectrum. About 5,000 Pittsburghians and others were there at the Festival.
There were many Festival tents set up around the perimeter of Flagstaff Hill in Schenley Park. The T-shirt tent was packed all day. There were line-ups at the colors tent, but they kept things moving right along. Smiling faces were seen leaving the vegetarian lunch tent, where free home-made cake was available to all.
One of the event staff at a T-shirt table said: “The bands had the crowd going, and everyone participated. It was very enlivening to see so many people who would ordinarily not be chanting Hare Krishna to now be chanting and dancing, having the time of their lives.”
A festival participant, who was not from Pittsburgh, told us, “I was impressed by the diversity of people who attended the festival, and everyone really seemed to enjoy it. For instance, there were two Muslim women wearing their head coverings and, when they went to the table for Festival Of Color T-shirts, I was thinking ‘how are they going to wear these’? Well, they just pulled them on right over their headdresses and later on, I saw the same ladies totally covered with colors. Actually, before I came to the festival, I had expected to see mostly college kids, but, instead, I discovered mothers with teenage daughters, and all ages of people. From the looks of things, everyone had a great time.”
Some other quotable quotes from participants:
“Good day, good vibes, good people!”
“You will see very happy, laughing and smiling faces, you will see peaceful faces, you will see contentment on the faces. And you will not find a sad face.”
And one young lady had a very special, once-in-a-lifetime experience: “Hey! So I got proposed to on stage by my boyfriend at this year’s Festival of Colors! What an amazing experience and fun way to get proposed to! Glad to have shared it with everyone there.”
“Did he just propose to me? My gosh!”
The happy couple
Another festival-goer exclaimed, “The weather was perfect, the music was wonderfully LOUD and absolutely amazing! So much true talent on that stage today, the brilliant colors being thrown in the air at intervals transformed the park into a Spiritual/Psychedelic Wonderland, the likes of which haven’t been seen in many years! Everyone was having a blast and chanting the Holy Names, and talking philosophy with people, as well as displaying their own wide variety of talents and crafts. The Prasadam (blessed food) was delicious, as always, thank you Kitchen Crew!”
One very grateful participant exclaimed, “I thoroughly enjoyed this party from start to fabulous finish! This was a wonderful event to balance the somber moments of the Easter season with moments of joy! I danced, I smiled. I had almost 200 hugs to add to my current goal of reaching 40 thousand overall hugs in my lifetime! What a celebration! I hope we get to do it again next year! ”
