Bali Jatra is a festival which was celebrated to remember Odisha’s maritime trade pride. Though it is celebrated in various major cities of Odisha, the Bali Jatra celebrated on the banks of the River Mahanadi in Cuttack is special. As such, It is known as the largest open trade fair in Asia.

This festival is held every year on Karthika Poornami. It starts with the festival of ‘Boittha Bandana’ celebrated in Odisha. On that day, people gather on the banks of the Mahanadi and commemorating the trade carried out by ancient Odisha traders with Bali, Sumatra, and Java by offering model boats and launching them into the Mahanadi. On the same day, the Bali Jatra festival begins to continue the legacy of Odisha merchants gather on the banks of the Mahanadi to trade goods brought from Bali, Sumatra, and Java in ancient days.

As i am Resident of Cuttack for this year, we set off with the family to discover Asia’s biggest open trade fair. There is a lot of traffic because the city is not big enough to host such a big festival. After a long struggle we caught the auto. It took 1 hour to cover 8 km in this jam. At dusk we entered the Bali Jatra by swimming in the flood of peoples over Mahanadi banks.

The Ratinas decorated with colored lights, and eye-catching games. As far as we know it is similar to the exhibitions in Tamilnadu cities. But it is very popular in Odisha. Thousands of people are coming everyday. When we went there was so much crowd that we didn’t even have a place to put our feet.

Pani Puri is called Ghup Chup in East India and Gol Kappa in North India. We bought it and started the street food hunt. Then we had a roller coaster ice cream, spicy waffles, Green peas soup, panchu mithai, malai paneer and finally Odisha special Tanka pani. This tanka pani is a drink made from buttermilk and rice with spices. If you come to Odisha, try this drink.

Our neighbor Odisha lady also came with her daughter. He took is to the Odisha State Rural Development Corporation stall known as ORMAS. Here all the districts of Odisha are allotted with place. They sell the best products of their respective districts. She was buying all the necessary things for the house and we were having fun visiting every district store.

Then from there we climbed a nice big Ratinam. Veera and I enjoyed the beauty of the Bali Jatra from the height, everywhere there were colorful lights and people gatherings and Ratinams. At least one lakh people gathered at that time.

This is a fair you can see all the best things to buy in Odisha. It is better to visit this 7-day festival within the first 5 days. In the last days the crowd will be uncontrollable and you will not be able to enjoy anything and you will become irritated. That’s what happened to us. A day is not enough to see this. We could only see 25% in 4 hours. That much huge it is. Then we all returned home around 10 pm.

If you happen to visit Odisha during the months of Karthikai, you must attend this mela and feel Odisha.

Travel Guide:

Location – Cuttack

Festival – Bali Jatra

Special about – Asia’s Largest open trade fair

Best time to visit – 7 days after Karthick pournami

Time required– 4 hours

Things to do – Colourful Giant wheel ride , Odisha foods and shopping, Cultural events

Rating – 6/10

Trip Budget: (Tentative as on 2023) (You can add inflation with the below price by the year your are in now)

Item	Budget	Luxury
Reaching there	From cuttack railway station just 5 km, it is easily accesible by local transport – 200 INR	From cuttack railway station just 5 km, it is easily accesible by local transport – 200 INR
Entertainment	For Giant wheel and other entertainment – 300 INR	For Giant wheel and other entertainment – 300 INR
Food	Cusinines of odisha – 300 INR	Cusinines of odisha – 300 INR
Shopping	NA	Depends upon the requirement – Odisha special products – 3000 INR
Total	800 INR	3800 INR