Pondicherry Heritage Festival kicks off on Saturday

Experience curated heritage walks, boat rides, and cultural events at the 10th Pondicherry Heritage Festival from February 24 to March 3.

Heritage walks, boat-rides to mangroves in Thengaithittu estuary, and rediscovering the old-world charm of a street in the Tamil Quarter, are part of a package of curated experiences at the 10th edition of the Pondicherry Heritage Festival (PHF) that gets going on Saturday.

The PHF, from February 24 to March 3, in its decadal edition, marks the handing over of baton to a younger generation of volunteer-organisers and will also set the course for future festivals.

Over the past nine years, the festival has focussed on certain aspects of heritage, the unique architectural legacy and natural heritage of the town and bio region. While the previous editions had succeeded in shifting public perception about tangible and intangible heritage of the town, the 10th PHF will turn the spotlight toward other aspects of heritage that are becoming increasingly part of the popular imagination, ranging from mangrove lagoons to forest trails, native skill sets and local cuisines, said Veda, of Open Space, an art and culture collective.

As Bitasta Samantaray, People for Pondicherry Heritage (PPH), pointed out, the concept of a heritage festival had originated from the ruins of The Mairie, a 19th Century landmark that was weakened by years of neglect and eventually collapsed in 2014. What started as civic action to prevent other legacy buildings meeting a similar fate had transformed into a civil society-led, volunteer-driven heritage movement.

“The original aim of PHF was to draw attention to the town’s unique architectural legacy with a purpose to conserve this built heritage. We feel certain that this had an impact. Both the government and private citizens are now focussed on conservation, and this impact is especially visible when observing the ways in which tourists engage with the town”, Ms. Veda said.

Ashok Panda, INTACH co-convenor, said the PHF is assuming a broader shape and travelling beyond architectural legacy to highlight diverse aspects of the living heritage of the place.

‘Kayaking for a trash-free planet’ featuring a cleanliness drive in the mangroves, along the Ariyankuppam River, visits to the indigenous Tropical Dry Evergreen forests (TDEF) of Auroville which is designed as a carbon-neutral experience; a nature cycling trail tour, sketching the everyday heritage in Goubert Market, and a cycle tour of the Arikamedu archeological site, a goldmine of artefacts of Greco-Roman trade dating back to around 200 BC, are among the activities.