It could well be another close finish for the Gold Cup at the State School Arts Festival.
Going into the final day, Kozhikode, Palakkad, Kannur and Thrissur are involved in a fierce battle. At the time of filing this report, just 11 points separated the top-placed Kozhikode and the fourth-placed Thrissur.
Last year, in the 59th edition of the festival at Alappuzha, Palakkad had dethroned Kozhikode which had been the champion since 2008 (in 2015 at Kozhikode, the two districts had tied for the top spot).
There was intense competition in several events on the third day of the festival across multiple venues here and the neighbouring town of Neeleswaram. Once again, classical dances like Bharatanatyam and Kuchipudi, Oppana and Malayalam Drama were the biggest crowd-pullers.
Except for the main venue at Aingoth, which hosted Bharatantyam (HS girls) and Thiruvathirakali (HSS), you could see large number of fans returning disappointed. Those venues were too small to accommodate such big crowds.
The crowd that assembled at the Durga HSS to watch the Oppana (HSS) contest.
Oppana venue
Durga HSS was the best example of that. It was the venue of Oppana, which is hugely popular in this region. So thousands had turned up, well before the contest was slated to start in the afternoon. Most of those Oppana fans could not even get in. And those who did, after waiting in the queue, had not even enough space to stand. Soon, they were forced to join the queue to leave the ground.
The situation was not much different at the Town Hall which hosted Kuchipudi (HSS girls). Its capacity was far less than that of Durga, but getting inside the hall was a mission impossible almost.
For the third day in a row, the art lovers of this town showed how much the festival meant to them.
