Handloom expo in Tirupati sees surge in visitors amid wedding season

Handloom expo ‘Hathkargha Mela’ (State Handloom Expo) 2026, organised by the Andhra Pradesh Shilparamam Arts, Crafts, and Cultural Society, Vijayawada, is seeing a visitor surge in view of the wedding season that started mid-February, at Shilparamam on Tiruchanur Road.

As Tirupati’s Shilparamam also has a wedding-cum-convention hall abutting its premises, the event turned out to be an effective crowd puller. This apart, the footfall is also high because of the devotees visiting the Tiruchanur Sri Padmavati Ammavari temple.

The event, which was inaugurated on February 22 by A.P. Yadava Corporation Chairman G. Narasimha Yadav, A.P. State Greenery and Beautification Corporation chairperson M. Sugunamma and A.P. Nayi Brahmin Corporation chairman Rudrakoti Sadasiva, has been registering steady inflow of visitors.

Around 64 artisan groups are from the Telugu States, and the remaining hail from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jammu & Kashmir, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, and Jharkhand.

Customers, especially women, are making a beeline to the stalls selling the ethnic Kashmiri, Bagalpuri, Pollachi, and Venkatagiri saris. The wooden toy makers from Settigunta, ‘Thella Jilledu’ Ganesh idol makers, imitation jewellery sets from Visakhapatnam are also making good business at the expo. The expo ends on March 7.

Meanwhile, even though the Union government-sponsored exhibitions were conducted across Tirupati, Guntur, Visakhapatnam, and Kakinada in 2025, the Tirupati event alone bagged an impressive footfall of nearly 2 lakh visitors last year.