About
To preserve and promote Madhya Pradesh's classical, folk and tribal cultural heritage through annual festivals, heritage site development, and cultural tourism promotion.
Government of MP's tourism + culture apparatus (incl. Ustad Alauddin Khan Academy); funds the Khajuraho Dance Festival, Tansen Samaroh and Lokrang.
Madhya Pradesh's cultural festival programming is run jointly by the state's Department of Culture and the Madhya Pradesh Tourism Board (Tourism Corporation of Madhya Pradesh), with the Department of Culture organising the flagship classical and folk festivals and the Tourism Board handling promotion, infrastructure and visitor experience. The state, home to three UNESCO World Heritage Sites (Khajuraho, Sanchi and Bhimbetka) and 15 additional sites on UNESCO's Tentative List, anchors its cultural calendar around several long-running annual festivals: the Khajuraho Dance Festival (organised with the Madhya Pradesh Kala Parishad, reaching its 52nd edition in 2026), the Tansen Sangeet Samaroh in Gwalior (marking its 100th edition in December 2024), the Kalidas Samaroh in Ujjain (founded 1983 under cultural administrator Ashok Vajpeyi, who separately drove the creation of Bharat Bhavan in Bhopal), and the Lokrang Samaroh, a five-day tribal and folk arts festival held in Bhopal around Republic Day, now in its 19th-plus year. The state also produces an annual 'Kala Panchang' cultural events calendar and has more recently added the multi-city Heritage Festival (spanning Khajuraho, Sanchi, Mandu, Gwalior and Orchha) and events such as Jashn-e-Bhopal, a New Year's cultural celebration on Bhopal's Upper Lake.
Initiatives & Portfolio
With Madhya Pradesh Kala Parishad, 52nd edition 2026.
Ujjain.
Tribal and folk arts, Bhopal.
Khajuraho, Sanchi, Mandu, Gwalior, Orchha.
Madhya Pradesh's cultural-tourism apparatus is significant for the sheer density and longevity of its festival calendar relative to most Indian states, anchored by three of the country's most internationally recognised heritage sites and several festivals with genuine multi-decade continuity (Tansen Samaroh's centenary in 2024, Khajuraho Dance Festival's 52nd edition). Its dual Culture Department/Tourism Board structure, rather than a single unified body, reflects a common Indian state government pattern of splitting cultural programming and tourism promotion into separate but closely coordinated departments. The state's substantial tribal population (46 communities, seven major groups) also gives its cultural programming a genuine folk and tribal arts dimension, reflected in the Lokrang Samaroh and the Tribal Museum in Bhopal, rather than a purely classical-arts or monument-focused calendar.