Famous Gopalpur beach festival from January 11 to 15

Gopalpur beach festival would be held in January this time rather than in December like earlier years. This five-day beach festival would be held from January 11 to 15. Earlier date of this beach festival used to coincide with Christmas. This decision was taken at the first preparatory meeting for the beach festival held in Berhampur city. This beach festival is organised every year jointly by the Ganjam district administration and Ganjam District Hoteliers' Association (GDHA) to promote tourism at this beach resort and to show case cultural heritage of South Odisha. The preparatory meeting was chaired by Revenue Divisional Commissioner (RDC) southern division, Laxmi Narayan Nayak. It was attended by Ganjam Collector Kishan Kumar, MLAs of Gopalpur and Berhampur and many office bearers.

Decision to shift dates of the beach festival was taken at the request of the GDHA. The GDHA felt holding of beach festival during festive tourist season was putting extra pressure on the small beach resort. Added to it large crowd that gathers up for the beach festival and clogged traffic was also causing problems for the tourists who check in hotels of the beach resort during that time. Holding of this beach festival during January would add up another tourist season for the beach resort, felt GDHA. This famous beach festival had been started during 90s by the GDHA and this famous beach is just 9km away from Berhampur city.