The Desert Festival of Jaisalmer is a multicolored festival which is held in February every year.

The Desert Festival mirrors the local talents and reverberates the customs of Rajasthan. It is called the Desert Festival as it takes place in the desert region of Jaisalmer. It is annually held and it showcases the talent of the local artists. For tourists this will be an interesting festival to witness or even better the can participate in it. During the Desert Festival the otherwise quiet desert region echoes with the traditional musical instruments and the voices of the folk artists. It is one of those opportunities to gather more information about the folk culture of Rajasthan. The state is always depicted as vibrant and during the Desert Festival one can witness the resplendency with which it is celebrated.

History of the Desert Festival
No Indian festival is complete without being associated without legends. The legend is associated with Lord Krishna. He prophesied to Arjun that the latter built his kingdom on Trikuta Hill. In 1156 AD prophesy materialized when Rawal Jaisal, a descendent of the Yadav Clan, built his capital here. Arjun too belonged to the Yadav clan. The festival is celebrated to mark the foundation of the new capital.

The desert festival in Jaisalmer was started to attract foreign tourists, who always wanted to travel around as many facets of Rajasthan as they could in the possible crisis of time. The three-day event stresses more on local parts and heritage. The tourists who are from outside India are considerably targeted to visit to this festival and see the beauty of the cultural traditions of the state and plainly these foreign tourists love to see the glimpses of the culture of India –chiefly Rajasthan through a range of performances and competitions that are organized presenting as imperative part of this festival.

Celebration of the Desert Festival
The Desert festival in Jaisalmer generally takes place in January or February. The celebrations continue for three consecutive days. Traditional performers gather here from all over the state and display their forte to the rest of the world. The cultural programs take place in open air with the yellow shifting sand dunes as their backdrop. At the stadium various entertaining events like the turban tying competition, camel races and acrobatics take place.

The Desert festival starts with a majestic parade in the early morning which is starting from the Jaisalmer Fort to the Shahid Poonam Singh Stadium. The local artists of Rajasthan sing and dance on the beats of established musical instruments which are played beautifully and will really touch the hearts of the people. Apart from music and dance there are Horse and camel sports are also prearranged where people can see high standing camels decorated colorfully with ornaments and bells and flowers and they go for a race and the owner of the winning camel gets gigantic prize money. Another competition is the Man of the Desert and the ability is measured by the length of the moustaches of the participants here and the longest moustaches will be the winner. It is another way of having and watching fun in the desert festival as this is one of the completion that is an important part of the. Another competition is the Turban tying competition where the turbans are considered as the element of esteem and the high tied it will be the person will be the winner.

In this festival there are plenty of foods options can be seen here with the local food vendors and also in the local food marts and sweet sales who sell in a wide range of local Rajasthani cooking and the food festival is a matter of dignity which should not be missed at any cost. The local food of Rajasthan is mainly known for its lip spanking cuisines and they are hot in all over the country for their rich color and spiciness. The tourists can taste the very best of the food of the state amongst Daalbati, Gatte ki Sabzi, Lal Maas, Churma, Ghevar, etc. Apart from these competitions the festival also include puppet shows, snake charmers, folk dancers, acrobats, local musicians, mehandi artists, art work sellers and many others those who literally make the festival more colorful and vibrant.

The Desert festival also gets more energetic when the popular fire dancers and Gair dancers take part and they dance with the fire plates on head and also standing on them. These are really wholehearted and make the tourists go appreciative of these acts.

Connectivity of Jaisalmer
The Jaisalmer Airport is allied with the flights from all the major cities of India and the Jaisalmer Desert festival"s venue is 42 Kms away from the city, which people can easily access via hiring a private taxi or regular public buses.

Jaisalmer is also connected via trains. Jaisalmer has its own railway station and people can easily get trains to Jaisalmer from almost everywhere in India. Frequent public buses to Jaisalmer are also available from all its neighboring cities.