Celebrate Spring in Color
If you happen to be driving through Forsyth County Saturday, you may see people splashed in vibrant hues of color walking along the street. It’s time for the Holi Celebration.
Known as the Festival of Colors, Holi celebrates the diversity in community and the arrival of spring, symbolizing the victory of good over evil. It is held annually on the full moon of the last month in the Hindu calendar year. In 2025, that is March 14-15. 
For the last six years, the Atlanta Holi Festival, hosted by Sewa International USA, has been held in Cumming. Billing itself as the largest Holi in Georgia, it drew an estimated 18,000 participants in 2024 to the Cumming Fairgrounds last year, including Congressman Rich McCormick, Consul General of India in Atlanta Ramesh Babu Lakshmanan and Georgia State Representative Todd Jones. Forsyth County Commission Chair Alfred John was there as well. Throwing colors is a tradition of the festival and people generally exit the fairgrounds festooned in brilliant hues of dry color.
There is no charge for admission to the festival. Indian food and colors are available for sale. You can enjoy music, traditional dancing and a variety of celebrations of Indian culture.
“We don’t view this as a profit-making event,” says Madhav Durbha, president of the Atlanta Sewa chapter, adding that the festival is much more a community celebration than a money-maker.
The organization funds its projects through grants and donors. “Our donors have been very generous,” he adds.
“In Sanskrit, the word sewa means service,” he says. A 501 (c) 3, Sewa funds a number of projects that help underserved communities in both Forsyth County and the Atlanta area, including food drives, disaster relief, homework assistance for children and a free health clinic.
A Hindu faith-based organization, Sewa International operates on the principal that the whole world is one family, regardless of race, religion, ethnicity, nationality or gender. “Everybody deserves to be served,” Durbha adds.
Every 6 to 8 weeks, Durbha says, volunteers bring fresh fruit, groceries and non-perishable goods to a variety of food-insecure Atlanta-area communities, including Cumming, Alpharetta and Norcross.
“I call it the Indian Salvation Army,” says Alfred John.
In addition, Sewa supports K-8 children with an after-school homework-help program called ASPIRE and in-person activities on Saturdays, with games and enrichment for kids.
Two Saturdays a month, the organization sponsors a free healthcare clinic in Norcross, in association with GAPI, the Georgia Association of Physicians Indian heritage. The clinics provide basic diagnostic services for those who are uninsured or under-insured, and they offer heavily discounted lab work.
“Our belief is that food, education and healthcare access are the basic needs,” Durbha says. “If we can provide these, then the community will thrive.”
The dry colors are lab-tested and come off easily, Durbha adds. He says many festival goers bring a large garbage bag to put in the car seat for the drive home. Outside colors or alcohol are not allowed inside the festival grounds. The Atlanta Holi Festival will be held from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. March 15 at the Cumming Fair Grounds, 235 Bethelview Road, Cumming. For more information about Forsyth County and its Indian population, see the May 2025 issue of Georgia Trend.
