![\"\"](\"http:\/\/iskconuk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/watermark.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
By Mukhya Devi Dasi<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Festival of Colors 2014 was a grand success with more people than last year and many more attendees from outside the devotee community coming over to play Holi. Devotees invited colleagues and friends; we networked extensively on Facebook; advertised on Google, in local print publications, press releases all over Florida and on radio, too. We borrowed friend’s mailing lists, and the word went around. We shared our community, chanting the maha mantra, prasadam, and Krisha consciousness with hundreds of people who had never even known we were tucked away in Alachua.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[90],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12533"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12533\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The Festival of Colors 2014 was a grand success with more people than last year and many more attendees from outside the devotee community coming over to play Holi.
\nDevotees invited colleagues and friends; we networked extensively on Facebook; advertised on Google, in local print publications, press releases all over Florida and on radio, too. We borrowed friend’s mailing lists, and the word went around. We shared our community, chanting the maha mantra, prasadam, and Krisha consciousness with hundreds of people who had never even known we were tucked away in Alachua.
\nSome stopped by the book table and bought Bhagavad Gitas, some learned to chant japa with Akuti devi dasi, everyone took delicious prasadam, chanted and danced to four fantastic bands, and threw their colors to the wind.
\nAnd everyone had a great time. You don’t have to take my word for it. Go to Festival of Colors Facebook<\/strong><\/a> and Gainesville Sun<\/strong><\/a> to see what everyone’s saying about the Festival.
\n<\/font><\/div>\n
\nMany thanks are due to all the volunteers who showed up to run the festival Saturday. It was an impressive showing of devotional force. Very special appreciation to the Temple office staff who put in a lot of extra time and energy organizing all of the above. To Shanka das<\/strong> and his tireless helper Kishor das <\/strong>, as well as Yamaraja das<\/strong>, for preparing the lunch prasadam. Everyone says, “yummy.” Chaturatama das<\/strong> organized the music, the bands were fantastic, and Dhirodatta das’<\/strong> expertise on sound management makes us feel fortunate to have him in the big pool of talent at New Raman Reti.
\nKrishna Kesava das<\/strong> would win an Olympic gold medal if Festival Set-up was a team sport. He’s simply amazing: manifesting helpers out of thin air, throwing up tents, tables and chairs, ropes and signs, and then breaking it all down again. It is just plain old hard work. Bhakta Clay<\/strong> got water and electric out to an otherwise empty field of grass. Mahabuddhi das<\/strong> made signs, signs, and more signs. Thanks to everyone mentioned and not mentioned who helped put New Raman Reti on the Festival of Colors map…another great way to spread Krishna consciousness is here to stay.
\n<\/font><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"![](\"http:\/\/dandavats.com\/wp-content\/uploads4\/2014-04-18_12-03-52.jpg\"\/)
By Mukhya Devi Dasi<\/strong><\/p>\n