Dhanu Yatra is an eleven-day open-air theatre festival staged across Bargarh every year in late November or December, marking the birth of Krishna and the eventual defeat of the demon king Kansa as told in the Bhagavata Purana. It has been performed in the town since 1947–48, started by a handful of local enthusiasts in the first flush of Indian independence, and has grown to the point where the Guinness Book of Records has recognised it as the world's largest open-air theatrical performance.
The whole town becomes the stage. There is no ticket and no fixed seating: scenes are played out on the streets, in market squares, on the riverbank, and processions move from one venue to another with the audience trailing behind. The actor cast as the cruel King Kansa is the central figure, parading through Bargarh on an elephant, holding court, issuing edicts, terrorising his subjects, and finally being slain on the closing day. If you can time a visit for the festival, the experience is unlike any other religious or cultural event in India — a town of 80,000 people that for eleven days collectively inhabits a different reality.