School Fest: Northern districts leading

THRISSUR: The 52nd State School Festival witnessed Northern Kerala surging ahead in points and grades on Thursday, the 4th day of the festival. With Kozhikode still leading with 504 points. Thrissur, the host city, Kannur and Malappuram are close on the heels with 483  points each to steal the second place. The fete was dominated by the districts from Northern Kerala in events that were mainly performance art.BSS GHS, Alathur, in Palakkad, led the high school segment while Durga HSS, Kanhangad, in Kannur, claimed the first place in the higher secondary school category. However, the Southern districts have been posing slow but steady threat to the sprinters scoring in traditional art forms like thiruvathirakali, bharathanatyam (boys), margamkali, folk dance and items like mono act.The drama results were, though not dramatic, came as an uppercut to the post-modernist experimental theatre that was the forte of South-West Kerala once, as Kannur, Kozhikode and Palakkad took positions at first, second and third places respectively. The classical art forms were shared more or less evenly across the state, with items like kuchippudi (girls) going to Kozhikode while top ranks for folk dance and Kerala Nadanam being awarded to Thiruvananthapuram and Ernakulam.The band competition was one of the worst hit by the scorcher. The competition, held at the Police Academy, was almost deserted save for the teams participating in the competition and scant spectators. However, the day saw around 20,000 spectators. The officials said the coupons for food hit another high at 15,000. The business in the town thrived as tea stalls and star-rated hotels cashed in on the huge influx of visitors. Autorickshaws were seen plying non-stop till the wee hours, every day. Organisational hiccups, of course, continued to plaque the competitions from allegations of police manhandling the media to accusations that participants swooned on stage, during the oppana and margamkali and other performances, in order to make the grades.The judge who was caught on camera, dining with participants after the competition, in an incident that stirred the hornet’s nest, was dismissed. A brawl was staged at the Malayalam poetry event over the judgement between the jury and the contestants. A token protest by a thiruvathirakali team outside the premises at the corporation stadium was foiled by the cops even before the drama in real life began.