National Folk Festival 2018 to commence from February 15-18 in Kerala

The Kerala State Youth Welfare Board will be organising the second edition of National Folk Festival from February 15- 18 in the capital city Thiruvananthapuram. The festival is going to be held at various venues in the city.
The curtain raiser will be done by the traditional folk art ‘Vellari nadakam’ from the state at Kanakakkunnu on February 15 at 6.30 p.m. An old art form used to be performed by the youth in the days of old, to protect the harvest of the crop.

The major attraction of the festival will be the performance of renowned Rajasthani folk singer Mame Khan, who is considered to be a god of Folk music, and known for his energy and vocal skills. He is going to present the fusion of Rajasthani and folk music at the festival.

The artists from different states, to perform the art would be coming to the festival. Nishagandhi, Kanakakkunnu and Manaveeyam Veedhi - the venues of the festival will showcase some of the precarious characteristics of rural Kerala and are also planning to set up ‘Naattu chantha,’ a village market in the Kanakkkunnu premise on the day of the performance.

The festival will also host North-eastern states of Assam, Manipur, and Nagaland. These states will be showcasing various folk and art forms at the festival.

Besides that, the festival will also feature Burra Katha and Tappeta Gullu of Andhra Pradesh, and the enchanting Baul music of West Bengal.


Also, there will be poothams to campaign on the fest. Pootham Kali, a traditional folk art form of north Kerala, will be performed on Thursday.

“Originally, Pootham Kali is performed to summon significant persons in a village for the staging of conventional art forms. Here, poothams will visit the houses of famous personalities in the capital city to invite them to the NFFK,” said P Biju, Vice-Chairman, Youth Welfare Board.

The performance artist from Mizoram, Maharashtra, Odisha, and Karnataka will also perform and there will be seminars on Folk art forms to discuss regarding the preservation of folk art, and challenges they are facing in today’s time.

Bidding Adieu, to NFFK, on 18th Feb will be done by a grand Patayani performance with traditional orchestra and few other performances.