Vadodara: Garba organisers initiate refund after patrons dissatisfied over wet ground

On Monday evening, a group of garba players raised slogans and interrupted the celebrations in protest, seeking a refund over the wet ground. Renowned garba singer Atul Purohit, who draws several fans to the UWB — which is one of Gujarat’s biggest congregation of garba players for the nine nights, with close to 28000 patrons — also stepped in to mediate for peace. Purohit urged the patrons to continue playing and grant time to the organisers to rectify the problem. However, the protesters were unconvinced and demanded that the trustees of UWB publicly explain the issue.

Hemant Patel, one of the trustees of UWB said, “We had made the announcement on Monday night after they refused to grant us a day to repair the ground… The ground was wet as Vadodara received rain of about two inches ahead of the garba and the preparations that were made for the garba were washed away. Our team has been working since 3am on Tuesday and since there has been no rain, the ground is ready for the second night of Garba.”

The trustee said the passes were accepted for a refund without any questions. “When the patrons demanded that the trustee must accept mistakes for mismanagement, I stepped on to the stage and clarified that there has been no mismanagement… those who did not want to give it another chance, will be refunded the full amount… We have not decided yet what we will do with the surrendered passes,” Hemant said.