KOCHI: The delay in the commencement of the competitions on Thursday irked several contestants and their parents on the second day of the 30th District Revenue School Youth Fest here. Expecting the programmes to get under way by 9 am the contestants, mostly in competition attire, turned up at the venues by 8.30 am. However, the competitions of almost all the events began around 11 am, two hours behind schedule.
“ It was after 11 am the judges and organisers reached some of the venues. If they were aware of the delayed start, they could have informed us earlier. We reached the venue without even having our breakfast. This has become a pattern since last year also we were forced to wait for hours to start the programme,” said the parent of a contestant who came from Edavanakkad.
Events such as kuchipudi, bharatanatyam, drama, mimicry, monoact, ottanthullal and percussion were the major events which got delayed. Though the bharatanatyam competition in the HSS section was scheduled for 9 am at the Mela Auditorium, the organisers rescheduled it to 3.30 pm. Even after this, the programme could begin only after 5 pm. This resulted in the competitions in the glamour events dragging on late into the evening.
However, the authorities said the delay was unintentional . “There are many contestants who are in the fray for different items. We don’t want to deny them the chance to take part in all the items for which they had registered,” said an officer with the Education Department.