Five years ago, the city played host to the 50th State School Arts Festival. It remains one of the best in the long history of the school festival; it was flawlessly conducted and art lovers of the city made it an unforgettable affair, with full houses for every venue.
They would be back at those venues, in the third week of January, for the 55th edition of the festival. The organisers are ready, too, despite the fact that it was allotted to them just 10 days ago.
The festival was originally scheduled to be held in Kochi but was moved to Kozhikode because the State’s biggest city is struggling to cope with the construction of the Kochi Metro.
“We were only happy to accept the responsibility of hosting the festival even at short notice,” Deputy Director of Education Girish Cholayil told The Hindu . “We are confident of making it a big success.”
The first meeting to discuss the organisation of the festival will be held on Monday. The main discussion is likely to be about the venues. Mananchira was the main venue for the 2010 festival but it has since been renovated and may not be suitable for the festival this time around.
“Mananchira though is still on our preliminary list,” said Mr. Girish. “Malabar Christian College is another option as the main venue. We would also look at the beach and Swapna Nagari as possible venues.”
He said the city was the ideal choice for the festival, to be held from January 15 to 21, once the decision was taken to move it out of Kochi. “A smaller town could not have hosted the festival at short notice but Kozhikode certainly could,” he said. “We have enough teachers in the district to ensure its smooth conduct.”
Those teachers are looking forward to the challenge of conducting what should be the biggest festival of its kind in the world.
“Two months are enough for us to make the planning,” said P.K. Salam, who teaches at Himayathul Islam HSS, Silk Street. “It is going to be hard work for, but we enjoy it.”
This is the seventh time the festival is coming to Kozhikode.
