‘Tiruchi Vizha’ celebrates the city’s can-do spirit

Weekend festival promotes camaraderie and culture

A foot-tapping flash mob dance item and Kerala’s traditional chenda melam drums marked the launch of the inaugural edition of Tiruchi Vizha, an initiative to help the public celebrate the city’s art and popular culture, here on Saturday.

Being held over the weekend on the Anna Nagar Link Road in the city, the event is a joint public outreach project organised by the district administration, Tiruchi Corporation, Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) — Tiruchi Zone, Young Indians, and a host of local commercial establishments.

In his address to the gathering on Saturday, Tiruchi Collector M. Pradeep Kumar said, “Stress is an unfortunate fallout of urban living, as we begin to lose touch with our family and get caught up in the daily routine. Programmes like ‘Tiruchi Vizha’ will help us to break away from the competitive lifestyle and form an emotional connect with our city.”

M. Somasundaram, chairman of CII Tiruchi Zone, said that the weekend festival provided business concerns in the city an opportunity to create a more personal bond with the people. “The Tiruchi Vizha has been in the works for over five years now; this is our way to channel CII’s activities to be more people-centric,” he said.

Besides the cultural events on Saturday, the fiesta includes folk dance items, a walkathon, a food festival, art display, laser show and a Zumba demonstration on Sunday. Camps for health checkups and blood donation, a movie outing for orphanage inmates and retail store discounts are among the public events planned for Tiruchi Vizha, which is scheduled to end on Sunday evening.