Kerala State School Arts Festival: Stage set for five-day cultural extravaganza
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The curtain will go up on the 63rd State School Arts Festival, billed as the biggest cultural extravaganza in Asia, in Thiruvananthapuram on Saturday. Over the next five days, the state capital will witness a spectacle of arts with around 14,000 contestants showcasing their talents in 249 events.
Competitions will be held across 25 venues in the city. For the first time, five tribal dance forms have been included in this year’s fete. The procession carrying the golden cup, which began from Kasaragod on December 31, reached Thiruvananthapuram on Friday morning.
General Education Minster V Sivankutty received the 117-sovereign golden cup at the Central Stadium, the main venue that has been named ‘MT-Nila’ after the late writer M T Vasudevan Nair. The festival cup started its journey from the Durga Higher Secondary School in Kasaragod.
The festivities will commence at 9am at the Central Stadium, with the director of general education hoisting the festival flag. The official inauguration, led by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, is scheduled at 10am and will feature a cultural performance choreographed to the festival’s theme song. Students from landslide-hit Vellarmala GHSS, in Wayanad, will present a group dance.
The food pavilion at Putharikandan grounds, that can seat around 4,000 people at a time, was inaugurated on Friday. The central kitchen adjacent to it is being helmed by noted chef Pazhayidam Mohanan Namboothiri. Provisions sourced from various schools in the district are being used to prepare the meals that will be served three times a day.
The food pavilion started functioning by serving dinner to the participants. Sivankutty, who assessed the preparations on the eve of the fete, called for a healthy competition among the participants. He also urged students, teachers, and parents to behave in a manner that upholds the dignity of the event.
While the Sanskrit Festival will take place at the Government Model HSS and LPS, Thycaud, the Arabic Festival will be held at the Sishu Kshema Hall and the Government Model HSS, Thycaud. The festival will include seminars, exhibitions, and cultural programmes.