Madras and Performing Arts
The long established and the highly evolved Madras Margazhi (December) Music Season for Carnatic Music and Classical dance, and the more recent meticulously planned and marketed Chennai Sangamam are very popular events in the December/January months. I was pleasantly surprised to find one small scale, but thoughtfully promoted, event sandwiched between the two. Dubbed the "Mylapore Art Festival", this was in early January, just after the main music season ended. The entire area surrounding Kapaleeshwar temple was taken over for this festival that celebrated traditional artsy stuff including "Kollam" competitions on the roads, dance performances by school children on stages near Raasi, sales of trinkets including "choppus" etc. The stretch of Big Street from East Mada street to Lady Sivaswamy school became "Food Street" for the duration of the festival! It was interesting to see all this going on, even if it created an unholy mess for vehicular traffic in the region. Traffic was deadlocked for a kilometer in every possible direction around the temple. If the organizers plan for another edition next year, they'd do well to coordinate a bit better with traffic police and other authorities.