Fest Tees on sale. Grab some!

The 2014 Festival T-shirts are now on sale. They are in white and in black colours and carry two different peacock designs which were outlined by famed artist and cartoonist Keshav of The Hindu.

They cost Rs.220 per piece and are now on sale at the Mylapore Times office - 77 C P Ramaswamy Rd., Alwarpet, Chennai 18. And on sale at the INFO counter near the 'ther' shed ( opp Rasi store) on all 4 evenings of the Fest.

From coastal Karnataka to coastal Mylapore

Every year, we host a troupe from outside.
This year a Yakshagana team led by the well known Shivananda Hegde from north coastal Karnatak will be here.

Ten artistes and musicians make this troupe. They present two back-to-back productions on the main stage and in the open air. Should be a treat to watch; more for those who have not watches a Yakshagana recital.

Hegde isn't new to this city. He has performed at many Chennai venues.

Our friends will lodge at what has become the pad for travelling artistes - Hotel Karpagam on South Mada Street. Fully renovated it has a charm of its own and is a favourite destination for musicians and rasikas here for the December season.

Thanks to Prasanna, the site is fully updated. Check it!

Prasanna Ramaswamy is our SOS man when it comes to making a SOS call to give the Festival website a big push.

So as soon as he landed here from Ireland - to take a break from research and enjoy the December Season kutcheris and catch up with his folks here - we got his services to update the web site.
Now, it is primed for the Fest and carries all the info.

Sadly, the site was hacked some weeks ago and we have lost a bit of the written and visual documents of past Festivals. We hope to restore them alter this year.

We will need one smart tech-savvy volunteer for the 4 days of the Fest. To collate the buzz on events, post them  on a public screen and populate the FB page to keep well-wishers in the loop.
Keen? Buzz Revathi at 98405 44629.

More lighting at Sannidhi Square

Bhupalan is our lighting man for the Fest. He and his small team put up the street lamps, light up the market and food spaces.

This year we managed to also get Victor in. Victor grew up under the celebrated theatreperson late Mithran Devanesan and is now a busy man, setting up stuff for huge trade shows and lighting dramas, especially the ones of The Madras Players.

Victor does a great job in Thiruvaiyaru when Ranvir Shah holds the Sacred Music Fest, lighting up the old temples, ghat and the riverside.

Victor hopes to light up the mantap and the east facade of the Sri Kapali Temple and the spaces around Sannidhi Square. It is his idea to have a short dance recital in a mantap on top of the stairs that lead to the temple there shed. What do you think of this idea?

Fest Tee at Christmastime

The Hindu's senior cartoonist and celebrated artist Keshav has chosen five designs from among the 35 submitted  by kids for the Fest Tee.
So we chose two designs for the white and the black Tees that are now being produced at Tiruppur and will be on sale by Christmastime.

We are taking orders for packs of 5/10 or more now. Each Tee costs Rs.220.

T-shirt design event at park kicks off Fest 2014

Welcome to the 2014 edition of the Mylapore Festival, funded by Sundaram Finance and curated by Vincent D Souza and R Revathi.

On the eve of the first day of December we seem to have quickly drawn up the schedule rather easily.
Last night, dance guru Sheela Unnikrishnan, back from a wonderful tour of Taiwan confirmed her dancers' dance drama show for the Fest this year.

The first event, a small one unfolds on Sunday, December 1 at our fav nook - Nageswara Rao Park in Luz. Here, kids will colour a simple design that will be used as the motif for the Tee ( T-shirt) for the 2014 Fest.

This basic design is the work of one of India's famed cartoonists - Keshav of The Hindu.
Keshav, who also live in the area was more than willing to create the basic design and we are looking forward to the colours that teens will add on Sunday, 8 a.m. onwards.

Be part of the Mylapore Mosaic

Love knitting, fabric painting, crochet or applique work?
And does the image of peacock fascinate you?

Then, come along. Let's make a Mylapore Montage together through creative designs of peacock for 2014 edition of Mylapore Festival.

All that you need to do is to handcraft a design representing a peacock.You can use fabric and paint. Or crochet with colourful woolen yarn. Make your work in a square of 1 ft by 1 ft (12 inches by 12 inches). These squares will be stitched together and will be part of a decorative installation during the Mylapore Festival to be held from Jan 9 to 12, 2014.

All those interested in creating the huge mosaic are invited to be part of the briefing session.
On Dec. 1, 2013 at 8 a.m. at Nageswara Rao Park, Mylapore.
You will get to see a few sample works on that day.
For details, contact Revathi, Co-Director on 98405 44629.
If you cannot make it to the meet, and still interested in doing one, buzz anyway!

Design a T-Shirt for Mylapore

We invite school students to design a T-Shirt for this year's fest.
Check out the contest to be held on Dec. 1 (Sunday) at 8 a.m. Be there at the Nageaswara Rao Park.

Mylapore Festival 2014 edition. From Jan. 9 to 12.

The 12th edition of the Sundaram Finance Mylapore Festival will be on from Jan. 9 to 12, 2014.

The team is planning for adding new features to the festival.
A Mylapore Food Walk along the popular eateries of the neighbourhood like the Rayar's Mess to Janal Bajji Kadai is planned for a Saturday evening.
A bicycle heritage tour and a few art installations are also part of the new features at this fest.
How about a Sound and Light show, asks an enthusiastic volunteer.
The team is putting together all these ideas, shows. Till the final schedule is drawn, you catch all the buzz at the festival FaceBook page here - http://www.facebook.com/mylaporefestival/
You can also share your ideas on the page.
Welcome to yet another edition of the festival!

Time to say Goodbye, but there's work to be done!

We took a small break and found that this isnt enough after a tight Festival.
And now it is time to settle the big bills from all the service providers.
Thankfully, with a cool sponsor like Sundaram Finance the process is smooth and fairly quick.

When you have a sponsor who also believes what you as Director of the Fest have in mind and on the  vision radar, it is a great partnership.

Reason to offer a special thank you to SF's Head, T T Srinivasaraghavan and his team.

It has been a hugely enjoyable Fest despite the hiccups that all such street and open space based Fests carry with them.

And with the jottings of the Fest's pluses and minuses, we will be back to the table in March 2013 to plan the 2014 Festival.

Your suggestions, ideas and hand up will be welcome too. Do write in - mymylaporefestival@gmail.com.

Till the next January, thank you for being with us.

Positives of this Fest

Some nice positives from this Fest.

One, that people do enjoy the traditional performing arts and will watch them as late as 10 p.m. The Bhagatava Mela experience this time was encouraging.

Two, that many people are so proud of the kolam carpet created by the Kolam Contests that they want traffic to be curtailed for a few hours after the contest so that tourists and others can take time and enjoy every art work in peace and quiet and that dirty wheels do not run over the works of art.

Three, that a good Carnatic music concert in the open air welcomes people who are not hardcore music rasikas and they stay on till late.

Four, that more and more people are proud that a Fest of this nature takes place in their midst.

Rickshaw Tour gets moving!

Asha Sridhar of The Hindu newspaper just could not wait to take the Cyclerickshaw tour on Friday evening.

We had requested City Editor, Bishwanath Ghosh ( Tamarind City author, the book based on our city) to consider some feature ideas that The Hindu could look at at the Fest and he responded.

Through fading light Asha and her colleague got the sights and sounds of inner Mylapore and not content with their experience, have told the rick men to expect friends on this weekend.

This tour is best done at daytime so if you or your friends want an experience please come by to the Fest office counter ( East Mada Street, Rasi store area) at 4.45 p.m. and book early!
Just now, there are just 2 ricks on the tour.

Exhibition of vintage Mylapore triggers contributions

Over 500 people must have seen the small Vintage Mylapore Photo Exhibition so far.

It is located along the western wall of the Lady Sivaswami Girls School, on East Mada Street through the evening and we now keep it open through the day at the thread ( ther shed).

Though there are only 35 odd pictures the show has now triggered donations from the community. Two people brought some old photos to share including some by the family of Prabhu , a  PR professional who also handles the PR for Sundaram Finance for the Fest.

The pictures were of the Malayalee Assn at the Madras High Court! many lawyers in this frame were Mylapore residents and the picture has been carefully preserved by Prabhu's neighbor.

We invite more such donations of old Mylapore photos. Mail us at - mymylaporefestival@gmail.com

Stalls, stalls, stalls!

Space for all - perhaps that is the underlining spirit of the Fest.
Because besides the events that we as the hosts present and the streets that we create, loads of other people also set up shop.

Stalls, stalls, stalls is the plea from men and women who want to tap into the popularity of the Fest.
Selling food and mosquito repellants, beads and chapati makers, the stalls of all kinds in all place make this a thiruvizha of sorts.

As hosts using a public space, we really cannot and may not be able to bar the hawkers and sundry stalls from the space. Live and let live is the policy!

Bhagavata Mela gets good audience. 2nd show tonight!

When the last word was said on the Main Stage last night the clock showed 10.25 p.m.
And there were at least 400 people in the audience to applaud the Bhagavata Mela team from Thanjavur.

Bhakta Prahlad on Day One of the Fest was good. More so when the show unfolded on a large, simple stage set against the lit multi-pillared mantap of the Sri Kapali Temple, a wonderful work of art that is sadly stoned in the dark.

Mali and his team will be back on Friday night to present the Andal story in Tamil and this should also be great. Starts from about 8.15 p.m today.

The streets came alive and the special lamps alongside the veedhis gave that quaint touch to the fest area.

Expect the crowds to be big Friday evening as the bzuz has now made the rounds of this neighborhood.

Kapali temple has space for more dance

Classical Bharathanatyam performances inside Sri Kapali temple has been a tradition in Mylapore Festival for years now.

This one-hour performance by young students of famed gurus is a colourful one that draws huge audience and make the temple goers sit  for a while and enjoy in a great ambiance.

When we were told that there is another dance event hosted by the Chairman of the temple, Mr. Vijay Kumar Reddy on one of the days of the festival, we needed work around the timings.

Mr. Reddy who is a great supporter of music and dance, sponsors many awards and events during the 'December season' in Madras. So it wasn't difficult for the Mylapore Festival team to convince him to have both the dance events in the temple on that day.

Dance guru Mathumathy Prakash too doesn't want to give up a chance to perform at the temple and has readily agreed to perform an hour earlier on the day.

Now, on Jan. 12, there will be a Bharathanatyam performance by the students of Mathumathy Prakash followed by a Odissi dance recital by the dancers of Nrityagram, Bangalore, Surupa Sen and Bijayini Satpathy.

The Navarathri mandapam of Sri Kapali temple has space for all this and more

Mohan's docu film on margazhi mood on mada veedhis

A new docu-film has just landed on our table and it makes good viewing.

Mohan Das Vadakkara has captured the sounds, sights and music of the margazhi season on the mada veedhis of Mylapore. The 12minute film will be among the 3 short films we will screen at the Main Stage area of the Fest.

Titled Margazhi Moods on mada veedhis, the film has been uploaded on YouTube last night and we want you to see it and post your comments too!

Mohan Das had a terrible end to his first shoot on the veedhis in late December - his hard disk crashed and he lost great footage, including some great predawn shots of the Arudra procession out of Sri Kapali Temple.

But he doubled up last week and delivered in quick time. For the past few years, the Fest commissions very small films on Mylapore to be screened at the Fest. If you have ideas, buzz us for 2014.

The Team that builds the base for the Fest!

Five key men and their teams make this Fest happen. For they are ones who build the foundations and stages for the shows to roll and go on for four days.

Bhupalan has been with us for a decade. His team is small and it fixes all the basic electrical systems we need, replacing fused bulbs inside our lovely cloth lamps and the paper lamps from Pondy that decorate 5 streets / lanes.

Swamy has also been with us for some years and his Triplicane based team handles the sound and lights at the main stage - Swamy is the kind of person who always says 'yes' to requests - collar mikes in a jiffy, additional light on the small stage and stuff.

Shankar from Llyods Road joined us this year and will fix all the stalls. Big but quick infrastructure a Fest requires.

And the man who runs around and fixes things through 24 hours - Kathiravan from Mylapore Times. Kolam maavu, artists' stands, banners and posters . . and more. That is a lot he handles.

The Fest runs on this team in many ways.

Can we revive our Ricks?

The cyclerickshaw life is a sad story. We got closer to it this week as we put together the Cyclerickshaw Tour.

Krishnan and Murthy will be the two men who will pedal visitors on a 40minute journey through Mylapore streets and lanes, going as far east as the San Thome Cathedral.

The ricks are rickety simply because patronage is next to zilch for these men; Murthy has been a bit smart, with a few school safaris before he hits a job in the area. But Krishnan sounds so despondent. He is 70 and a tired man.

Krishnan belongs to the rick community which was an adjunct of the old Mylapore families - carting women to tenples, markets  and stores. Seniors to short distances. And earned well. In some ways, the Krishnans were part of the extended family of the 50s and 60s.

Mylapore still sports at least two dozen ricks. They are the links to the past.
If the tours can grow into a regular tourist circuit for some of these men and their eco machines, this Fest may have made a contribution.

If you have ideas to make this grow, share them. Join its

The Kolam Display on the mada veedhi . .

We started the Kolam Display last year. Letting the 100 plus kolams designed on North Mada Street, just off the temple zone to remain as a live exhibit on the road so that Festival visitors and passersby enjoy the spectacle.

Since it gets dark by 6 p.m. we even floodlit the street section and the kolams in that glow were a brilliant carpet. Thankfully, Mylapore Police also co operated and guided the traffic on one side of the veedhi.

We hope to let the Display remain on the weekend this season. If we could make it, we would like the Kolam Display to remain as such into the night. That would draw hundreds of people.

Need for temple heritage zone . . .

We are always looking at the open spaces on and off the mada veedhis.
And dreamily imagining the picture on the veedhis if we cut off the traffic for 3/5 hours on these roads, let the hawkers and stores open colourfully and host cultural and art events.

I believe this is an idea that is easily possible. All we need is a city council and city police and state tourism to back the idea.

The Sri Kapali Temple zone is a truly heritage zone which needs a special status and attention.
The Mylapore Festival tries to bring the focus on this idea.

Hopefully, the kolam display after the contest will be a showcase on the weekend.

Mylapore Quiz can be testy!

QFI, many thanks.
The Quiz Foundation of India (QFI), a body of hyper and champ quizzers has always been of help to the Fest.

So when we buzzed senior quizzer Gopal Kidao this time, he responded in a  jiffy and we now have Vijay Sai as Quiz Master for the Mylapore Quiz on Jan 13 at Lady Sivaswamy Girls School.

It is open to all, and for teams of 2. No regn. required. All questions will be on Mylapore.

Report at 2.45 pm. We have to close the event by 4 pm because other events follow at this hall!

Street for Artists

Hopefully, we will now have an Artists Lane at the Fest - an idea we have been working on for some time.

It is not easy to convert streets and lanes in Mylapore where life bubbles everyday into a Fest zone.
We need to respect the local people's lives but most have always been accommodating. They love tghe festival mela scene as long as people don't mess around.

So my artist friend Gita and past MFA students like JP and Siva, both regulars at the Fest have worked their contacts and will have at least 12 young artists to display small works of art on Pitchu Pillai Street, just off Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan.

Portrait painting of guests will also be done - it is the most indemand thing at the Fest.

Dabras as souvenirs!

Getting dabras made as souvenirs was an idea that came from the community on FaceBook.
It is a nice one and we are happy we could source a pack of dabras at our fav store in China Bazaar and even get the MF logo engraved on each one.

They will go on sale as souvenirs at the Fest Office near the thread. But the dabras are in limited numbers.

T shirts, caps and framed Mylapore illustrations are all ready to go as souvenirs. Grab them!