The nights are pleasantly cool and the days are not intolerably hot here.
It is as if Nature too is ready to welcome the biggest cultural event of Asia that packs an eclectic mix of dance, music and art. The 55th edition of the State School Arts Festival will begin at the Malabar Christian College HSS Ground here on Thursday.
Special
The festival is special not just because it is big. It is special because it showcases thousands of amazingly talented young performers in a wide variety of disciplines over seven days.
It is special because it is organised by thousands of dedicated teachers with skills that could match the best of event managers.
And then there are the spectators, who turn up in large numbers at every venue. Only at this festival would you see crowd of more than 30,000 staying up till the early hours of the morning to watch Bharatanatyam.
Classical dances remain the most glamorous event of the festival. Folk dance, group dance and Oppana too are crowd-pullers.
Some of the newly introduced events, such as folk songs, too have gained popularity.
For the music fans, there are many other forms such as light music and classical music besides different musical instruments.
Traditional art forms such as Thiruvathirakali, Margamkali and Chavittunatakam too attract large audience. And there are people who come to watch Kathakali and Kathaprasangam alone. Drama, mono act, and mimicry reach out to wider audiences. There is so much to choose from.
There are competitions in as many as 232 events, in which over 11,000 students participate.
Nobody could have imagined such a number when the first festival was staged in 1957 in Kochi with 400 students and 18 events.
Over the last six decades, the festival was the stepping stone for artistes including K.J. Yesudas, P. Jayachandran, Chithra, Sujatha, Venugopal, Manju Warrier, Kavya Madhavan, Vineeth, Neena Prasad, and Kudamaloor Janardanan.
Some 1,500 journalists would cover the festival, with television channels beaming programmes live.
That alone would give you an indication of how much the festival means to the Malayali.
