A small idea that paved way for Asia’s largest festival

Kerala State School Arts Festival: A grand event showcasing talents of 15,000 students in 249 events across 25 venues.

It began as a small idea. As do the grandest of things, often.

C.S. Venkateswaran, the then Principal of University College, Thiruvananthapuram, was impressed by the All-India inter-university youth festival in Delhi in 1954. When he was appointed Kerala’s first Director of Education a couple of years later, he decided to have an arts festival for the State’s schoolchildren.

Thus, in 1957, began the journey of a remarkable arts event that has gone on to become the biggest of its kind in the world.

In the first edition, about 400 students competed in 18 events over two days at the Government Girls’ High School, Kochi. It was called Kerala State Inter-School Youth Festival then.

The inaugural champion was the North Malabar District.

Nearly seven decades later, the State School Arts Festival has changed beyond recognition. Some numbers would give a fair indication. At the 63rd edition of the festival, which opens at Central Stadium here on Saturday, about 15,000 students are expected to compete in 249 events, including tribal dances for the first time, across 25 venues. Surely, Venkateswaran, who can rightfully be called the father of the school festival, would not have imagined that his idea would take wings and soar this high.

The numbers may be mind-blogging, but the festival is about much more. It is about the opportunities this unique cultural event gives the students, the most artistic of them, to express themselves at the grandest of stages imaginable. Imagine a young Bharatanatyam dancer performing in front of a crowd of more than 25,000. It could happen only at the State School Arts Festival.