This night on the riverside, the colours are blinding. Carnival rides lined with bright arrays of LED lights spin and whir and flip, their movement blurring the structures into dazzling lines of light. Behind them a small stage with a single performer produces a large crowd around her, the brash spotlights behind her vying for attention against the soothing fluidity of her dancing. Families in their traditional dress kick up the dusty ground as they walk; women wrapped in saris of deep reds, yellows and greens trimmed with ornate gold embroidery, men in their long kurtas buttoned neatly to the top and their kids running around them manically, brandishing a garish arsenal of flashing swords, glow in the dark bubble blowers and dizzying handheld fans. They gather around the banks of the river, lined up haphazardly around the clouds of thick aromatic smoke billowing from plain white gazebos. They command what would be a plain sight into a stunning spectrum of colour.