A girl takes a selfie with the audience during the ongoing 61st Kerala School Kalolasavam, the State School Arts Festival, at Captain Vikram Maidan in Kozhikode | Photo Credit: Saqer Hussain
Asia’s largest. Kerala School KalolsavamThe State School Arts Festival, has been described as such for decades.
The numbers may actually back up that claim, this year as well. The 61st edition of the festival ends on Friday, with around 11,000 participants participating in 239 events.
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diversity and scale
The team of Sacred Heart HSS, Thrissur performing their play Thunal at the ongoing 61st Kerala School Kalolsavam at Kozhikode as part of Malayalam Drama (HS) Competition. Photo Credit: Saqer Hussain
When you look at the variety of arts in which competitions are held, you will get a fair idea about the magnitude of the festival. Where will you find different competitions in different styles of classical dances of India like Bharatnatyam, Mohiniattam, Kuchipudi and Kathakali? And, all those dance forms have separate competition for boys and girls.
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Even for music, you have competitions for singing in different genres, like light music, classical, G hazelM appila pattu and of Athakali Sangeetham, again separately for boys and girls. And you can compete in almost every musical instrument – be it guitar, violin, ukulele, flute, tabla etc.
huge crowd
Oppana crowd
, Video Credits: Mithosh Joseph
Then, there are the crowds. A sea of 30,000 people changed View Oppana in Malappuram in the 2013 edition of the festival. And over the years, there have been crowds of over 20,000 for other popular events such as group dances, especially if the host is one of the districts of the Malabar region.
The number of people being fed in the festival can also create a kind of record. Lunch was served to more than 22,000 people on Thursday and a few thousand more on Saturday.
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In all aspects, the event always bore the enormity of being Asia’s biggest. Whereas before there was no way of ascertaining this, now, with the Internet providing access to a flood of information, it is less certain that there will be an event of a similar style to match the magnitude of the State School Arts Festival. No other fetus. ,
Also, the claim that this festival is the biggest festival of the continent has not been disputed yet. Yet perhaps it is time to ask, is this festival or competition for school children really the world’s biggest?