Over the Bank holiday weekend Saturday 28th through to Monday 30th August, ISKCON Bhaktivedanta Manor held its annual Janmashtami festival, celebrating the birth of Lord Krishna.
The Temple management had been working closely with local Health Authorities and Hertsmere Council to deliver a safe event.
The festival was ticketed and designed to spread the number of visitors evenly throughout the three days to prevent overcrowding on-site and to keep social distancing measures in place. There were no more than about 4500 attendees on-site at any one time. Around 35,000 in total visited over the entire three days.
Many other measures had been put in place to safeguard the volunteers and pilgrims, such as temperature checks, hand-cleansing stations and the wearing of masks.
All the hundreds of volunteers had been trained and LFT tested in time for the event.
As a result of these measures, festival features were scaled-down compared to pre-pandemic levels. The management's main priority was to help attendees of all ages remain safe.
Traffic management was in place to avoid congestion and the staggered and fewer overall numbers of visitors throughout the three days helped reduce any issues.
The Temple President, Her Grace Visakha Dasi said: “It is so wonderful that so many people were able to experience the atmosphere and spiritual upliftment of visiting Bhaktivedanta Manor. I want to thank the hundreds of volunteers who have made the festival possible by their dedication and service."
Ambika, 21 years of age from Brent, who is a volunteer in the car parking team said that she “…has not been able to serve at the Temple for over a year and now it is so exciting that I could spend time with my friends to volunteer to make this festival safe and successful”.
Lilaben Patel from Harrow, 83 years of age, chopped vegetables in one of the Manor’s three kitchens. She volunteers to help prepare the thousands of plates of free vegetarian food that guests enjoy over the three days.
Twenty tonnes of vegetables were used during the festival, with volunteers manning stoves around the clock.
After only a brief pause at the beginning of the first UK lock-down in March last year, Bhaktivedanta Manor has been able to remain open for private prayer. That was possible due to its ongoing stringent social distancing rules. The temple has provided much-needed spiritual relief for tens of thousands of people.
Meanwhile, devotees of Bhaktivedanta Manor have been offering pastoral care and other types of help for its huge congregation, especially for the vulnerable in the congregation.
