The three-day event will take place at Kavyabatika in Ward 22 of Pokhara Metropolitan City as a collaboration among Adrisya Arts, Art Ghar and Sadbhav Theatre Nepal, according to the Nepali newspaper. Organisers Kiran Chapagain, Kedarnath Poudel, Bhishmaraj Joshi and Ram KC have lined up joint performances that pair international Butoh practitioners with Nepali theatre artists. The programme also includes workshops, meditation sessions and cultural exchanges designed to foster skills transfer among local participants.
Kiran Chapagain, chairperson of Adrisya Arts, told The Rising Nepal that the festival carries an anticipated budget of around 800,000 Nepali rupees. “This festival will make an important contribution to promoting Pokhara as a destination for cultural and wellness tourism, transferring skills to local young people and artists, and implementing the national strategy as a model at the local level,” he said. The newspaper noted that the gathering seeks to operationalise elements of Nepal’s National Health and Wellness Tourism Strategy at the municipal level.
The Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation released the National Wellness Tourism Strategy 2026-2035 together with a five-year action plan that targets raising the proportion of wellness tourists among all international visitors to 11 percent by 2030. Ministry documents further call for the creation of at least five integrated wellness hubs and the training of 2,000 new certified practitioners by the end of the decade. Festival organisers view the Pokhara gathering as a practical demonstration of how artistic practices can support these national objectives.
Butoh developed in Japan in the late 1950s as an experimental dance-theatre response to the post-war period, pioneered by Tatsumi Hijikata and Kazuo Ohno, according to established accounts of the art form. The practice rejects fixed styles or linear narratives, instead probing social, cultural and psychological states through raw physical expression and deliberate movement. Nepali participants will explore these techniques alongside their own theatrical traditions during the scheduled sessions.
Pokhara has long served as a centre for Nepali arts, culture and outdoor tourism, providing a fitting backdrop for the festival, The Rising Nepal observed. A parallel Butoh Pokhara immersion programme running from October 5 to November 27 will feature extended workshops led by seven international guides, the project’s website stated. Such extended activities are expected to deepen engagement among Nepali and regional artists while reinforcing the city’s emerging profile in wellness-focused travel.
