By
Type
The
months of January hold awe-inspiring processions of beige coloured
'Desert-Ship' against backdrop of desertscape in Bikaner. Spectacular shows
by best breed of camels donned up with jewelery and finest robes accompanied
by folk music and desert dances form the core of Camel Festival of
Rajasthan. The exclusive camel fair is a four day extravaganza that invites
camel owners from all the corners of deserts to participate in shows of
beauty, race, dance and acrobatics. Camel Festival attracts a number of
tourists from across the world to be a spectator to a festival involving
unusual camel performances: camel races, camel dances, and the bumpy and
neck shaking camel rides. Shades of Caramel
The festival begins with a nonplussing sight of beautifully embellished camels gathered for an exotic procession. The processions then move further to the open arena of sands. The Camel Pageant is held on the first day of festival when the Camel owners flaunt their camels jewelery and robes followed by Camel dances. Besides these there are number of activities like fur cutting designs, camel milking and best hair cut, foot works on the first day of Camel Festival. The day ends as the camels head for their camps with a tinkling sound of their anklets and silhouetting shadows on dusky sands. The second day is a special day as fastest of these camels participate in race competitions among thousands of spectators cheering for them.
The evenings are spiced up with awesome performances by folk and rural artists of Rajasthan. The cultural activities span from magnificent display of fireworks to Ghoomar (folk dance) and extraordinary renditions by musical maestros. The delicious culinary delights of evening prepared from camel milk are served to the spectators.
The only four legged animal of desert, Camels assay-mark Rajasthan with
its capability to ferry people from place to others making life possible
in the sands. Aptly called as 'Ship Of Deserts' they happen to be called
as pride of Rajasthan. However the state of Rajasthan doesn't have any
dearth of camels but Bikaneri Camels are known for their strength and
endurance. And of course a row of chivalry follows after this, Bikaneri
Camels formed an active elite army contingent called as Ganga Risala
that took part in both the World Wars and Indo Pak wars. The Camel
Festival organized by the Department of Tourism, Art and Culture at
Rajasthan is testimony to these human friendly beasts succoring man
since ages. 
