The story
Pushkar Camel Fair in Pushkar
Pushkar Camel Fair combines a working livestock market, where tens of thousands of camels, horses and cattle are traded on the open Mela Ground, with a full calendar of competitions including camel races, tug of war, a longest-moustache contest and matka phod. The fair builds toward Kartik Purnima, the full moon night when Hindu pilgrims bathe at Pushkar Lake's ghats beside one of India's few Brahma temples.
Traders begin arriving on the sandy Mela Ground outside Pushkar town roughly a week before Kartik Purnima, setting up camps for tens of thousands of camels, horses and cattle brought in from villages across Rajasthan for what began, and remains at its core, a livestock trading fair.