However, the festival will officially be inaugurated on Thursday.

Visiting the venue, it was found that the participants were registering their names on the first day.

The venue was decorated in a colourful way with an attractive stage for the formal inauguration. Artists were also found busy for the last-minute preparations.

Some 200 students of different schools in the district also gathered at a local school in the morning adjacent to the venue to meet potential and prominent artists coming from different parts of the country and abroad, learn from them and exchange their experience with them.

The participating foreign artists along with the local ones have already arrived in the district to attend the programme.

State Minister for Cultural Affairs KM Khalid will be present at the formal opening ceremony as the chief guest.

Eminent artist Prof Rafiqun Nabi will inaugurate the festival while cultural personality Asaduzzaman Noor will preside over the programme.       

Eminent artist Prof Mohammad Eunus is the convener of the festival organising committee while award-winning artist Md Harun-Ar-Rashid Tutul, an assistant professor at the Graphic Design department of Dhaka University’s Faculty of Fine Art, is its curator.

Tutul said the international art camp will be a lifetime great experience for the school-going artists.

They can also experience the way of painting of the prominent artists directly which will motivate them.

The theme of this year’s festival is ‘Nature is Life, Art for Brighter Life’.

Artists will paint as they like while organisers will provide them with art supplies, food and accommodation.

The festival will feature an international art camp by eminent artists from Bangladesh and beyond, art exhibitions, curated art projects, artist's talk, seminar, cultural programmes, traditional folk art and craft fair, installation, campfire and sightseeing tours.

An exhibition will be held on February 29 while another exhibition of the same paintings will be arranged from April 24 to April 30.

The organisers said the main goal is to introduce a healthy culture against the backdrop of poor taste, from cities to the remote countryside of Bangladesh, travelling beyond the realms of time.  

The art festival aims to inspire artists to create innovative artworks, in a quiet place beyond the chaotic city life. Renowned artists from home and abroad will share their experiences and views on art with school students during the event, they said.

The mega event will end with an exclusive exhibition of the paintings of the participants on February 29.